


Catch Your Death Of Cold

by Theonewhosawitall



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Grumpiness, Hurt, Sick Adrien, Sick Marinette, Snow, Snowball Fight, Tickling, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-03-26 12:59:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonewhosawitall/pseuds/Theonewhosawitall
Summary: Marinette doesn't like the snow. She never has. It's cold, it's wet, it's inconvenient, she hates it. Chat Noir (and Adrien) however, LOVES snow. It's fun, it makes everything pretty, and it reminds him of the good times. When Marinette gets sick over winter, Chat Noir tag teams with himself, trying as both Chat and Adrien to make her fall in love with snow, just like him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mischief_Tea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mischief_Tea/gifts), [EnberLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnberLight/gifts).



> For the two users who constantly comment on my work and keep giving me the willpower to keep writing. You're invaluable and I love you x

"Chat Noir come inside! You'll catch your death of cold out there in this weather!"

Marinette’s voice cut through the thoughtful silence that lingered around him. she was sharp, and she was grumpy, and she made him smile. Chat Noir leaned back, still hanging onto the railings as he stretched his arms out and turned his head to grin at Marinette. She was bundled up in a jumper, a scarf and a hat, so she was nothing but a pair of eyes, just to peer out of the trap door and grumble at him. Chat chuckled warmly at the grumpy marshmallow look on her face. It was cute. She was cute. Not Ladybug cute, but still cute enough that she couldn’t quite manage to look grumpy effectively. Enough to make him smile instead of taking her seriously.

He turned back to look up at the clouds that were filling the inky sky above them. "Do you think it's cold enough for snow?"

Marinette groaned in disgust behind him, pulling her jacket closer around her and yanking down the sleeves to act as mittens.

"I hope not! I hate the snow," she grumbled.

Chat snapped around so hard he felt his neck click, but he ignored to pain to demand, "What?!"

Marinette shrugged like it was something normal to say. "I hate snow."

"How can you hate snow?!" chat demanded.

"Because it makes dumb people like you look out from balconies for hours, freezing everyone inside!" She spat, pointedly.

Chat wanted to continue being outraged, but he felt the little smirk niggle at the corners of his mouth instead. It hadn’t been hours. She just wanted him back in the warmth, so she could continue to tease him about silly things and try to get him to open up to him more about his crush. He was quite proud that he’d managed to keep it secret from her just who he loved. Of course she’d guessed Ladybug more than once, but he wouldn’t cave. Just smiled enough to make her consider his spotty partner, but carelessly enough to make her doubt it. There was no use keeping her waiting. They didn’t have that much time to spend together before Nathalie noticed he was gone, and he didn’t want to waste too much of it out here, no matter how pretty Paris was at twilight.

"Alright, I get it, I'm coming in."

Marinette ducked back down into the warmth of her bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen her father was baking. The warmth of the ovens rose to her room, heating it so effectively that she didn't need to wear a jumper like Adrien did at home. A spacious and tiled mansion was alright in summer, since the large rooms allowed air to flow through and cool everything. Air conditioning helped of course. Yet in winter, the heating costs to warm the large rooms with any efficiency were ridiculous, and the fires that warmed the rooms that they used most of all needed almost constant restocking. Because of that his father didn’t like him spreading across the house, so Adrien's limited allocated space shrunk even more, and he still needed a jumper.  
Marinette had no idea how lucky she was to be warm.

"I thought cats hated the cold anyway. They're always seeking shelter in the warmth of car Engines and things," she grumbled.

Chat folded his legs beneath him and shrugged, "I guess I'm special."

"Or maybe just stupid," she shrugged.

"You're mean," he pouted.

"I'm cold!" she huffed.

An evil glint sparked in his eye. "I'll warm you up!"

He unfolded his legs again and crept towards where she sat on the floor. Marinette glanced up at him and frowned.

"What are you doing?" She asked tentatively.

Chat fell to his knees to creep across the floor towards her, both hands by his shoulders, fingers arched like he was about to pounce.

"Chat-" Marinette’s voice tightened as she recognised the look from Alya's eye. She scrambled backwards. "Chat no!"

She yelped as he pounced, and struggled against her, since she was trying to wriggle away. He ended up pinning her to the floor, practically lying on top of her, holding her wrists down. Her wide bluebell eyes blinked at him anxiously as his wicked smile matched the glint in his eye.

"I've got you now!" Chat grinned.

"What are you going to do to me?" Marinette didn't let the nerve reach her voice as she challenged him.

Chat leaned his face closer to hers to their noses were almost touched and whispered, "This."

Marinette felt the pressure on her wrist ease as his hand moved to her ribs. His fingers began to wriggle against her, searching for the nooks that made her squirm.

"Wait - wait - Chat no - Chat!"

Marinette exploded into a fit of giggles as he found her ticklish spots, and his ears perked up as his smile shone like sunshine.   
Chat ran his claws across her soft belly and the groove of his collar bone, careful not to cut her even as she wriggled frantically, screaming with laughter trying to escape. Chat sat on her legs, squeezing with his thighs to keep her from getting away. She was helplessly pinned to the ground while he tickled her relentlessly, his own grin growing more and more delighted. She wriggled and giggled like a child, trying to bat his hands away, unsuccessfully.

"Ok, ok YOU WIN! You win just stop- stop, please stop!" Her bright laughter turned into a breathless giggle.

He leaned back, his hands falling onto her stomach above her belly button, but he still pinned her down with his legs. Her arms fell flat against the floor as she stopped struggling and started trying to gulp back the air she'd laughed away.

"Warm now princess?" He teased.

"Your claws are freezing," she huffed the stray hair from her eyes.

He smirked. "Maybe I should warm them on your belly-"

" _NO_!"

Chat howled with laughter as she hit him with one hand and tugged her shirt down with the other. Marinette scowled. A wicked glint sparked in her eyes too. She reached up, locking her arms around his neck, and tackled him from below. Chat yelped as she threw him backwards, tangling both of them into a back roll so they ended up swapping places. His head hit the floor with a yelp, and his arms felt over his head freely. Suddenly he was pinned down by his wrists and a weight over his hips stopped him from kicking. Chat's surprised mouth faded into a smirk as her stomach pressed against his.

"You're far too short to stretch yourself like this," he teased.

"I usually don’t need to. You're too tall!" she smirked.

"It's not my fault you’re short," he teased.

"I'm not short!" she frowned.

"If good things come in small packages, you're one of the best," he grinned.

"You’re like an inch taller than me!" she argued.

"I know I’m one of the best, but you must be better,” he grinned.

“We all knew that already,” she smirked.

He pretended to gasp in offence, but there was a grin in his eyes. “meanie.”

She reeled back so she was sitting on his stomach with her arms pressed against her chest. “I’m mean?! You left my skylight open for so long Tik- um, I could get sick!”

Chat snorted. “You can’t get sick from the cold.”

“Yes you can!” she argued.

He tilted his head on the floor, “you can?”

“of course you can. You can catch your death from cold,” Marinette repeated what her grandmother had told her time and time again before bundling her in another unnecessary jumper as an infant.

Chat seemed surprised but interested, and then asked, “Can you get up? it’s getting hard to breath now.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Marinette rolled off of his stomach and stood up on her own two feet. Once she’d dusted herself down she held out a hand to held him to his feet too. He took it. standing side by side he flashed her another grin as he got his breath back.

“thanks.” He looked past her as a shadow fell across the clock, and his heart sank as disappointment sank in. “I gotta go. someone will notice I’m gone soon.”

Marinette whined softly. “Do you gotta?"

"I don’t want anyone to miss me," He shrugged.

"You spent so long on the balcony we barely got to talk!” she whined.

“next time come out in the cold with me,” he shrugged.

“next time stay at home,” she huffed.

Chat pouted. “mean.”

Marinette laid a hand on a hip and huffed. “Chat Noir the cold is horrible. Ladybugs die in the cold, you wouldn’t expect her to go out in this, right?”

Chat frowned, a little confused, and a lot concerned. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her, no."

“Right. so why would you want something to happen to me?” she asked.

Chat blinked in surprise as Marinette worried about whether or not she'd given away too much information and he was figuring out who she was. Chat, however, was wondering what to say. On the one hand he would never ever want her to come to any harm in any way. Not at all. On the other hand, though, he really wanted to spend time with her, and her really, _really_ loved how crisp and clear the nights were in winter. He wanted to share that with her. But he didn’t want to think he didn’t mind her concern...

“I just like spending time with you. and I want to do so in the snow," he answered finally. "I’m sorry I wasted all our time together.”

Marinette shook her head, immediately forgiving him. She couldn't stay mad at that cute little pussy cat look he had when he felt bad.

“Just make it up to me next time. we’re gonna talk about this mystery crush of yours!” she smirked.

“Ha, alright," he forced a laugh, but the relieved smile was genuine. "I pawmise.”

He headed up towards the balcony while Marinette wriggled into her warm jumper and scarf, ready to say goodbye outside. Chat knelt up to open the window and peered his head through. the clouds had dissipated again. no snow tonight. He wrinkled his nose, disappointed. Marinette wriggled up beside him, tugging her sleeves over her hands so her fingers wouldn’t go numb.

“You gonna be ok going out when it’s like this?” she asked.

“Sure. I’m hot blooded. I’m hot everything!” he winked.

“You’re certainly full of hot air,” she scoffed.

Chat threw his head back to laugh so brightly that it drowned out the whistle of the winter wind for a moment. The cold had already flushed his cheeks though, making the rest of him look paler than ever. Silvery moonlight turning his golden hair grey didn't help. Marinette bit her lip as he headed towards the edge of the balcony where they weren't shielded from the wind by the brick walls nearby. God help the boy he didn’t even have a jacket! If he carried on like this, his lips would turn blue. he would get sick. She didn’t want that on her conscious.

“Wait!”

Chat turned back and smirked as he watched Marinette clamber out through the hatch door, grumbling all the while. He caught a curse or two under her breath as she hurried over. For some reason she felt the need to run on her tip toes, as if that would keep her warmer for longer. It was cute. She looked like a ballerina. Chat’s smile never wavered as she gave him that grumpy marshmallow look and pulled her pale off. it unwound from her like a snake, making him snigger. That was cut short when she leaned up on her tip toes and draped it around his neck. His eyes widened in surprise when her cold fingers brushed against his neck, instantly replaced by the warmth of the fabric she set in its place.

"What's this?" He asked.

"I don't want you to get cold," she said, looping the scarf through its self so it wouldn't come off as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

He shook his head urgently, trying to push her away so he could take it off and give it back, "No, no-"

She tugged the ends of the scarf, so he was forced to bend slightly and couldn’t even try to remove it. Marinette was cold and grumpy and not in the mood to argue. "Don’t argue with me on this you won’t win."

The look of surprised turned to shock momentarily before he decided she was too sweet to force to be cold. he laughed a little as he protested, "I'm fine!"

"You'll get sick. No one needs a sick hero," she warned sharply.

“No-”

“ _Chat_.”

Marinette folded her arms and gave him a deadly serious look that was not one he thought he could argue with. It was oddly familiar, and it made some old memory niggle at the back of his mind. Chat smiled warmly at her. He couldn’t keep arguing with her. She was a sweetheart, and she was just trying to help.

"are you pawsitively purrtain?" he asked, uncertainty rang in his voice even though he knew the answer.

"Yes!”

“But-”

“Don’t make me set Papa on you kitty. you'll leave with five coats, a blanket, a thermos of hot chocolate as well as the scarf, _and_ a hot pie for the drive home you won’t be able to wriggle out of. It'll be easier to just take the scarf!" She warned stubbornly.

Chat smiled to himself. A new wardrobe just to keep him warm and a pie to warm him from the inside, as well as a ride home. No wonder Marinette was so amazing, her parents were too! Warm house, warm family.

She had _no idea_ how lucky she was.

"Your family is clawsome," he smiled.

" _You're_ clawsome, so don't die of cold. Go on. Be quick. Be warm," she warned.

"See you next week?" he asked.

"I'll be here. In the warmth."

"I'll be back with a snowball."

"I’ve got yarn and I'm not afraid to use it," she threatened.

He laughed again, 'Meanie."

She bit back a laugh as she pushed him towards the railings. "Take my scarf and go!"

“see you soon,” he called.

Marinette chuckled for a moment, watching him go easily across the city in great bounds despite the wind. Then she dove back to the warmth of her room and bolted the hatch shut behind her. It was far too cold for being outside right now. For her it was anyway. Chat was clearly from the north.  
Things had been different between them recently. He'd run into her the day he was supposed to tell Ladybug how he felt, but Ladybug had never shown up. Chat had very nearly told her he was in love with Ladybug, but he didn't have time. An ice cream man started attacking the city and he was needed. Of course he came back to check she was safe afterwards. She was waiting for him on the balcony. Sorta. She'd gotten there and transformed moments before he appeared. It was very narrow good luck that he didn't see her do so. No matter how much she tried to convince him to tell her who had hurt him he wouldn't.

That deeply irritated Marinette.   
She was a curious person and it bothered her that he wouldn't tell her as Marinette or as Ladybug. Despite Tikki urging her to drop it, Marinette repeatedly flagged down Chat while he was patrolling the city and tried to interrogate him about it. Tikki worried he was going to be frustrated, but Chat was amused by her determination. It was amusing that someone as nervous around Adrien as Marinette, thought nothing of calling over a respected and slightly intimidating hero while he was defending the city, to ask about idle gossip. But Tikki got through to Marinette about one thing. Disturbing his patrols risked people’s safety. Marinette grew concerned she was being too time consuming, so she stopped calling him over.

After a week of no contact from the baker’s daughter, Chat grew to miss her interrogations. He dropped by when he was free one day to ask her if she was ok, or if he'd upset her. She told him about her concerns and he agreed, but he also agreed to dropping by for a couple of hours every Friday or Saturday, if he could, to answer some questions.   
That was back at the end of summer.  
Now it was winter, and they had moved on from crushes. Neither were aware of the others actual crush, but they had grown fond of this shared time, and grown closer because of it.   
Yes, things had changed between them, but it was for the better.

Tikki sat on Marinette's head as she picked by a ball of yarn and some knitting needles, before taking a seat by her computer. Marinette leaned back, settling into the chair to make herself comfortable. Then she started knitting.

"What are you doing?" Tikki asked curiously.

"Making myself a new scarf. Lord knows that cat'll lose or unwind that one," Marinette chuckled.

Tikki smiled warmly. Her worries about how they could keep themselves secret despite all the extra time they spent together had been eased over time. As much as she loved these two people, and found them entertaining to watch, they were incredibly oblivious.

"You’re a good friend Marinette," Tikki smiled.

"So are you girl. My best," Marinette smiled.

The pair of them settled into their chair, watching the wool bond together with each stitch, peacefully calm. And then Marinette suddenly sneezed. It was like an explosion had suddenly gone off with no warning, and very nearly thrown Tikki from her head.

Tikki giggled. "gesundheit."

Marinette sniffed "Thanks"

Almost immediately she sneezed again, and this time Tikki flew upwards to make sure she couldn’t be thrown halfway across the room. She zoomed down to the packet of tissues on the desk and held one up to Marinette to wipe her nose with. As her nose began to run, Marinette and Tikki shared a worried look. Marinette groaned painfully.

"I hate the cold!"


	2. Chapter 2

Alya sat up to watch Marinette with concern as she came wandering into the room like zombie. Her face was whiter than the clouds that made the sky one big clod, and her hair was a mess, and her nose was as red as the rest of her face would go if Adrien was around. Marinette dragged her feet over to her seat and collapsed down on the table like shed been shot. Alya tilted her head at the lump now over her table.

"Are you ok Mari?"

The question had an obvious answer, but had to be asked regardless. Marinette ached too much to turn her head so instead she spoke into the desk.

"I think I'm dying." Her voice came out pained and muffled.

Alya laid a hand over her shoulders gently to try and give her whatever sympathy she could muster for the sick girl. There wasn't much, but it meant a lot. Alya's hand rubbed her back for a moment or two before coming to a rest at the centre as a thought struck her. 

"Need some cold relief meds?" She asked.

This time, Marinette rolled her head. Just enough that she could see her friend out of one eye though. "You sound like a drug dealer."

Alya bit back a smirk at that idea, "I've got hot chocolate to wash it down with."

Marinette sat up a little too eagerly and made her head hurt again. She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose to try and stop the pain. It didnt work.

"Gimme the drugs," she whispered.

Even whispering echoed in her mind like bells in the belfry. Alya’s hand vanished from the small of her back for a moment as she reached into her bag to find the pills her poor friend so desperately needed. Marinette reached for the travel cup of hot chocolate already waiting on the desk. Alya held out two little green and yellow capsules. Marinette tilted her head at them. 

"These are cold and flu relief?" She asked suspiciously.

"I don't think they're non-drowzy, sorry," Alya wrinkled her nose.

"If it gets rid of this headache, I'm in, sleep or no sleep," Marinette declared.

She threw the tablets to the back of her mouth with such rigour it made Tikki a little concerned. Then she grabbed Alya's hot chocolate and took a large sip, drowning the tablets so they slipped down her throat, while simultaneously burning her entire mouth. Marinette whined in pain and tried to blow air into her mouth by wafting it in with her fingers. Alarmed, Alya leapt to her feet, snatched Kim's water bottle from him, and thrust it at Marinette. 

"Hey!" Kim cried in protest. 

He was too late. Marinette had gulped down half of his water trying to ease the pain in her mouth. Kim folded his arms and frowned at the both of them. 

"I can't drink that now, I'll get germs!" He huffed.

"Oh Kim, I'm sorry, i didn't know," Marinette groaned.

"I forgive you Marinette, I've been there, but Alya! You could at least have said please!" He argued.

Alya put on the most innocent voice she could muster and said, "Please?"

Kim pouted at her, clearly irritated by the intrusion if privacy. He wasn’t going to let her off that easily. Alya threw her arms in the air helplessly for a moment. 

"Ah come on Kim!” she sighed. then a thought struck her, “I'll buy you another one from the vending machine and we'll call it quits yeah?"

Kim frowned still, "No-"

Marinette slammed the table with a hand, snapping at him grumpily, "Oh just take it Kim! We put up with you taking our stuff for your annoying dares and bets and things all year without complaining, but the one time someone takes something from you, you freak?! Grow up!"

Kim’s face turned from surprised to mildly hurt to annoyed. He wasn’t actually offended by what she said, but the tone that she took as she said it felt entirely unnecessary. More like Chloe than Marinette. He wasn’t going to let her get away with that.

"Hey, that’s not -"

Marinette scowled at him, ready to use biological warfare and cough him away if she had to. Before it could get that far, Alya put her arm between the two of them, and spoke to Kim in a calm and respectful manor. 

"Kim, she doesnt mean it. You know what she's like when she's sick," she said.

"Oh yeah...” Kim glanced back at Marinette.

Kim could see how sick she was right now, and he knew how irritable she could be when she was sick. It was a small price to pay for her being so nice when she was healthy, the class agreed. Especially considering that when she was going to argue with someone, she was going to destroy them. Chloe included. Chloe would never admit that she was worried what Marinette would say to her when she was tired, sick and irritated, because it would probably make her cry. However, she did avoid Marinette when she was sick, more than anyone else who was ill. She said it was down to “cheap tacky germs” being extra potent when ill, so she was “worried for her fashion sense” but everyone knew the truth.

Chloe wasn’t exactly subtle.

Kim cleared his throat, deciding to move on from this, and give Marinette space to heal. “you mentioned a new bottle from the vending machine?"

"I'll pay," Alya promised.

"That sounds fair," Kim nodded. 

"Awesome!” Alya grinned. she knelt down to grab her purse out of her bag and paused to lay a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “Put your head down Mari and give the pills some time to kick in. We'll really appreciate it."

"Me too," Marinette grumbled.

Alya felt a tug of concern for her friend. her voice seemed to be getting weaker already. Alya hoped Marinette would get better soon. Although last time she was like this Alya did get a lovely gift basket to apologise for all the mean things Marinette said afterwards. Alya wondered what she’d get this time. home made macaroons in the arms of a plush ladybug. the very idea made her smile. Kim followed Alya out of the door, keener to get away from Marinette than he’d care to admit.   
after they slipped out of the door, Nino and Adrien came wandering through. Nino’s heart stopped when he saw Marinette slumped over the table like that. he could guess the reasons. Reasons best to be avoided. Adrien, however, not having seen Marinette sick before, was immediately filled with concern with the girl he had grown so very fond of in his visits as Chat Noir. 

Adrien took a step forward and reached out to touch her shoulder, "Hey, mari-"

Nino moved like lightning to slap Adrien’s hand away from her, hissing, "Dude no!" with such urgency that it made Adrien think they may be an akuma around.

He gave Nino a puzzled look. "I just wanna see if she’s ok."

"Look at her, she’s clearly ill. Don’t wake the beast dude,” Nino grabbed him by his shoulders, looked deadly seriously into his eyes, and warned with a tone that could boarder fearful, “Don’t. wake. the beast."

"The beast?!" Adrien laughed. 

The image he was seeing was Marinette sulking in her over sized hoodie, grumbling about the cold as she tied the scarf around his neck. Grumpy marshmallow Marinette could hardly be described as a beast. He couldn't imagine ill Marinette being much worse.   
But the haunted look in Nino's eye casted doubt on that conclusion...

"Let's just sit down shall we?" he asked.

Nino still looked haunted as he took his seat. Adrien frowned at him. Marinette was sweet as sugar and cute as a marshmallow. How dangerous could that be? how beastly could that be? what, was a giant smore monster going to attack the city just because she was feeling a bit sick? This was Marinette they were talking about. Apart from Rose – and maybe Juleka – she was the sweetest girl in their class. Their very over dramatic class.  
Alya came wandering back in followed by Kim with a brand new bottle of water. Kim glanced at Marinette, and gave her a wide birth as he hurried back to the safety of his seat. Adrien snorted. His dramatic class was hilarious. Adrien leaned forward to tap Alya on the shoulder. 

"Is Marinette ok?"

Alya looked from him to the lump on her table. Gently she poked her shoulder. Marinette groaned in offence as she moved before settling back into place. Alya nodded and turned back to Adrien. “yeah she's still alive."

"But is she ok?" Adrien asked. 

"She's sick," Alya shrugged. 

"She should go home then," Adrien said. 

"No, she gets too bored when she's at home too early. Then strains herself so shes sick for longer, which means she cant work in the bakery, which frustrates her more," Alya explained casually. 

Adrien frowned in confusion, "What do you mean too early?"

Alya turned completely in her seat so she wouldn’t have to keep twisting. "You know when you're sick there's a gradual escalation of feeling bad, then worse, then peaking, then getting better? If Marinette goes home at bad instead of worse then she'll ruin her parents business."

"But she's sick, she should be at home!" Adrien said.

"Sometimes it isn't an option Adrien!" Alya shrugged.

Adrien's face fell as he realised she was right. Sometimes it wasn’t an option to go home. Her parents worked. No one would look after her. She couldn't help around the bakery either. It would be a biological hazard. But this was class. They were here to learn. She needed to be awake to do that, but right now she was busy drooling face down on the table. Even Chloe could be forgiven for teasing her about her current look, but she didn’t. It wasn’t worth the lash back. 

"Shouldn't we at least wake her up?" Adrien asked.

Nino gripped the table fearfully. Adrien blink at him in surprise at the urgency. Alya laid a hand on Nino's gently to ease his grip. She seemed weirdly calm about all this. Then again she did have two younger sisters who were manic enough while healthy, so she probably knew how to deal with grumpiness and sickness effectively. 

"Let her rest. She's cranky when she's sick and she's mean when she's cranky. And when she's cold. When she's sick and it snows she's unbearable," Alya said. 

Alya wasn’t entirely certain that Marinette would be unbearable if she was sick when it snowed out since it was yet to happen with her around, but she'd seen her friend in snow, and she'd seen her sick, and the idea of combining the two was not a particularly appealing one. 

"What's she got against snow anyway?" Adrien asked.

"We never really talked about it," Alya shrugged. She nudged Nino to check he was ok and not still having flashbacks, "Nino, do you know?"

Nino's eyes refocused onto her. "Know?"   
"What's with Mari and snow?" Alya said. 

Adrien grinned at them, "Hey they rhymed!" 

Nino just shrugged, "She just said it reminded her of the bad times."

The smile the rhyme had given Adrien was wiped away in light of this new news. "Bad times?"

"That's all i know dude, sorry," Nino said.

Adrien sat back in his chair with a sigh of defeat. His gaze trailed back to Marinette as she dozed on, her immune system in the heat of battle. He just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that she didn’t like snow. He didn’t know anyone who didn’t like snow! Granted he didn’t know many people anyway, but still. 

"Why are you so caught up in this? Snow is snow, take it or leave it, who cares?" Plagg grumbled.

"I care!" Adrien whined.

He sighed again, with such heavy emotion that it made his kwami sit up and take note. Adrien had never seemed to be one who loved the winter. Last year, for example, he ran off at Christmas so he didn't have to spend the whole day with his father. Then again with the emotional (and sometimes physical with all the "trips" his father went on) distance between them, it was hard not to agree with why he ran. Christmas was a time for family after all, and hos father was the only family he had left.  
Except this wasn’t Christmas.   
Christmas had been and gone.   
It wasn't twinkly and pretty outside anymore, it was dull and cold and pretty much lifeless. Joy had frozen over for a while, and wouldn't be back until maybe the Chinese new year. So why did he care so much about snow?

"I love snow Plagg. I really do. I’ve spent so long playing in it alone, last year was the first time I had someone to play with and i blew it by running away from home. This'll be the first time I get to do it right and I don’t like the idea that I'll never get to play in the snow with all my friends because one of my most important friends wont be there!" Adrien sighed.

For some reason Plagg's heart went out to him. It was a stupid reason, but humans were stupid. It was still sweet that he worried about leaving out his friend, so Plagg couldn't help but feel for him. 

"You’re a dork. But an admirable one," Plagg declared.

Adrien frowned at him. "Thanks?"

Plagg peered over the edge of the table towards Marinette. It wasn't pretty. She was drooling, her hair was a mess, and her nose was redder than Nathanael’s hair. But it gave Plagg an idea. 

"Marinette is sick. Soon she'll be at home, in her room, alone, all day for like a week or something. Why don't you go and visit and try to get her to open up?" Plagg suggested.

"Because..." Adrien trailed off.

Plagg leaned back in the air and challenged, "Because?"

"Someone would notice me vanishing more often. I barely get away with it as it is," Adrien argued.

"Then go as Adrien. Tell your gorilla that your friend is sick and you wanna keep her company for a bit. He’s a good guy, he'll understand," Plagg shrugged.

Adrien's gaze turned back to Marinette. "D'you think she will?"

"Why not? No one else wants to look after her. Look at them. They don’t even wanna go near her," Plagg pointed out.

Adrien glanced about, and smiled. No one but Alya would bother Marinette. It wasn't like Alya was going to let his aid go unappreciated. It was perfect. 

"Plagg, you're a genius sometimes," Adrien smiled.

"I know, I know. Don't tell anyone," Plagg shrugged.

Adrien smirked to himself as Plagg's tail curled back into his pocket after him. Who would be tell? No one could know but him. But he wouldn't let that go unappreciated either. Plagg was a genius, and Adrien loved him for it.

...

Alya linked her arm around Marinette to keep her upright as they wandered down the street together. "Lets get you home girl."

Adrien cleared his throat, feeling a little more nervous than he understood. Marinette could see right through Chat, but she was usually distant with Adrien. They rarely hung out without Alya or Nino there with them. Come to think of it, they only had once before, back when they were competing in a gaming tournament together. Even then they rarely talked. Not like when Chat was around. Maybe she just preferred Chat. No, That was silly, they were the same person.   
He had no reason to be nervous. 

Yet there were nerves in his stomach, and they crept into his voice. "Hey Mari, do you want a lift?" 

Alya elbowed Marinette to a stop when Adrien called to her, which didn't impress her much. She barely looked over at Adrien. When she healed she'd undoubtedly worry about how she currently looked to him, but Marinette was currently also dead on her feet and didn't care.

"I live right over there," she pointed to the street her bakery took the corner of. It really wasn't far. 

"You're sick, it'll save exposure to the cold and help you get better sooner," Adrien insisted.

"Girl don’t be an idiot, get in the car!" Alya hissed, shoving her forward. 

Marinette was too sick to argue, so she stumbled forward and over to the seat. Adrien stepped aside, bowing slightly at the waist and sweeping his arm to guide her path into the car. She ignored him and climbed in anyway. Alya smirked. Maybe the sympathy vote was something to aim for...

"Are you not coming Alya?" Adrien's voice shook get from her thoughts. 

"No, no, I live in the other direction anyway, so," she shrugged. 

"Oh, ok. See you tomorrow," Adrien called back.

He didn't believe her, but it would be easier to interrogate Marinette if she was alone. Alya folded her arms and smiled smugly.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

Marinette's leg leaned against Adrien as she tried not to collapse straight on top of him. There was something in her, the thing that made her anxious and flustered around him, and now it was clogged with snot enough to stop her feeling that fluster. Her nerve wasn't around anymore. Even so she tried not to lean against him. At the same time Adrien was quietly trying to figure out why everyone seemed so keen to avoid her. 

"Can i ask you something?" He asked.

"Do you have to? I mean my heads killing me, it hurts to talk, do i have to answer stupid questions?" She groaned.

Adrien smiled to himself and said, "I think I'm beginning to get my answer."

She sighed softly, "Sorry, I-"

"It's ok. I get it. You're sick, you don't wanna be interrogated right?" He smiled.

"Right. You can drop me off here," she called to the driver and pointed to the corner of the road. 

Adrien's little smile turned into a frown. "Oh... that wasn’t very long."

"You know I don’t live far, you've been to my house," Marinette pointed out.

"Right... Maybe I'll come check on you tomorrow. Make sure you're ok and all," he said, uncertainly, hoping she'd just invite him in. 

Instead she just shrugged and edged over to the door, "Sure whatever. Bye Adrien."

She pushed the door after her, to slam it shut, and waved a thank you to the gorilla for driving her. Adrien whined softly and drop his hands into his lap. 

He didn’t even get to say, "Bye..."

In the quiet of the back of the car his soft voice was loud enough to echo to the front seat. There was a deep and knowing chuckle from the gorilla as he drove away. Adrien looked up at the rear view mirror to see the smirk being shot his way.

"What?"

Gorilla chuckled again, and looked back towards the road. Adrien's ears turned red and he looked down into his lap.

"Its not like that..." He could feel the gorilla glance his way again and his cheeks burned. It wasn’t like he could tell him the truth. All he had left in his arsenal was, "Shut up.

Which just made him chuckle all over again. Adrien stared out of the window, trying to stop himself turning scarlet.

He cleared his throat and said, quietly, "Please don't tell dad..."

There was a long pause between them as gorilla considered what Gabriel would do if he found out his son had a crush. Another distraction. Adrien's heart beat hard as he willing gorilla to answer faster. Finally a grumble came from the driver and Adrien heaved a sigh of relief.  
Now all he had to worry about was escaping for long enough to visit to Marinette. Fortunately he had Chat for that.


	3. Chapter 3

Adrien did turn up the next day to check up on her when she didn’t come to school. He came with two questions in mind. The first was answered by the amount of cough sweet wrappers and used tissues scattered around the floor. The other involved tact and patience to build up to. He wandered into her room with a smile to see her sitting by her computer all wrapped up in an oversized jumper.

"Hello Marinette, you feeling any better?" He smiled.

She blinked at him in surprise. "I didn't think you'd actually come."

"I told you I would," he said. Then a thought struck and worried him. "Do you not want me here - I can go if-"

"No, no, stay. Just... just be careful I don't want you to get sick too," she warned.

Her mind was on the walls. What would be think of his posters being all over her room like this? Probably that she was insane. For some reason though, she couldn't bring herself to care right now.

"I thought I should bring something, but I didn't know what. I was gonna bring flowers-"

At that precise moment Marinette let off a spectacularly explosive sneeze, which made Adrien bite his smirk before it could grow.

"Maybe tissues would be better appreciated though," he teased.

"You're right about that. Can't wipe your nose on a rose," Marinette sighed, wiping her red raw nose on yet another tissue.

"Well you can if you mind the thorns," Adrien shrugged.

"Sure," Marinette muttered.

Adrien shifted uncomfortably. This was a little more awkward that his visits as Chat Noir. Maybe that was because he had the defence of a mask to hide behind. It was easy to accept flirting with one of his best friends when it was under the mask of a dashing and gallant hero.

"I actually wanted to know if, you um..." Adrien ran a hand across the back of his neck helplessly. He wanted to ask about snow, but he wasn’t sire how to lead onto that. Not until he noticed the view through the skylight. "You've seen how grey it is outside right? Do you think it's cold enough for snow?"

"I'm burning up Adrien, I think everything outside of this blanket is cold enough for snow!" Marinette pointed out.

His smirk was too quick for him to catch. "That'd be cool right? Snow inside?"

"Funny," she said, drily.

For a moment Adrien wasn’t sure what she meant until he realised what he'd said. "I meant the other kind of cool."

"Accidental pun or not, it's still not funny."

"You act like you hate snow."

"I do."

Now it was time for Plagg's favourite bit. Adrien had to grab his chest above his heart, gasp, and throw his shoulders back dramatically, as if he'd seen a ghost. "Really?! How?! Snow is..."

Adrien trailed off so Marinette tilted her head enough to look at him, pointedly. "What are you doing?"

"I was trying to think of a pun," he admitted.

"Why?" She asked.

"So it wouldn't be an accident this time," he smiled.

"I can promise you I'll laugh the same anyway," she promised.

Because she wouldn't laugh, he did for her. He chuckled softly, but he moved on quickly. "What’s so bad about snow anyway?"

"What's good about it?" She asked.

Adrien shrugged. "Snow reminds me of the good times."

"Good times?" Marinette scoffed.

"When I was young, we used to go skiing. Me and mum and father. It was the only time where fashion didn’t matter because the outfits were already picked out. You can't worry about whether to wear Parada heels instead of Gabriel's when you've gotta wear skis instead. Work didn't matter. Clothes didn’t matter. It was just... us," Adrien shrugged as he sank into the sofa behind him.

Marinette rested her head on her arm to keep herself looking up, "Just family."

"Yeah..." Adrien breathed. He smiled as he remembered those times. His voice softened enough to keep her interest. "I was never any good at skiing. I used to hit into a tree or fall over before I got to the start line. I'd fall on my face and get snow in my hair, so mum would kneel down beside me and say if I fell backwards next time I could make a snow angel, because..."

"Because?" Marinette asked, calmly, trying not to fall asleep then and there.

"Because I was her angel, and there was no better way to leave my mark on the slopes. Since I was gonna fall over repeatedly anyway, I guess she thought it'd be less embarrassing to see an angel from the ski lift rather than the imprint of an idiot who can't ski!" He grinned.

He could have sworn he saw a little smile on his grumpy marshmallows face when she said, "I can't imagine you being bad at anything."

"Let me take you to the slopes and I'll show you!" Adrien grinned.

"Surround me with snow? snow thanks!" Marinette scoffed.

"Hey good pun," Adrien laughed.

Marinette really did smile then for a moment. "No, I don't need skis to show how clumsy I am, I can make snow angels just by falling."

There was a lull in the conversation. Marinette wasn't feeling particularly chatty, and Adrien was trying to think of things to say to encourage her into telling him why she hated the snow.

"Have you ever been in a snow ball fight?" He asked.

"Of course!" She said.

"I haven't. No one would hit me in case father sued, so I would make snowmen with Chloé instead," he explained.

"With Chloé?" She sounded disgusted.

"Yeah we used to dress them in the latest fashion too. We had the best dressed snow men in all of Paris! It used to make father so mad when we get the clothes wet, but I didn't care. I loved playing in the snow with Chloé and building something that my father couldn't take away," Adrien chuckled.

Marinette raised her head from her hands, but not to laugh. "Wait- what? Your dad took away your snowmen?"

Adrien shook his head, smirking at her confusion, "No that’s my point. Father would never risk damaging his clothes or risk bad publicity. Everyone took photos of the well-dressed snowmen and advertised his collection. He couldn't be seen to heat it to destroy it just to save his clothes. It was the one thing he could never take away."

"But you still lost it. Every time without fail it would melt, right? Why bother?" She asked.

"I guess because we had fun working together y'know. and, for a little while at least, I had something that was mine. All mine," he smiled to himself, a little smugly, "I won."

Marinette frowned. Her clogged nose and clogged mind made her speak without thinking properly. "That's... honesty that's pretty messed up. I thought I had it bad after those two weeks in hospital and all those stitches, but at least I wasn't fighting with my dad!"

Adrien sat up urgently, "Stitches?"

Marinette ignored her and continued, "What would your mother do?"

"Keep me company while father sulked in his office," Adrien shrugged.

"Wow. And those were your _good_ times?" Marinette asked.

"It wasn’t as bad as it sounds now," Adrien insisted. "He's just over dramatic sometimes. It’s a wonder how dramatic I'm not!"

Plagg snorted so loudly that Adrien's chest pounded in worry that she'd heard. He decided to move on a little briskly, but there was only one thing that would come to his mind when he thought about what to say.

"Do you ever wonder if angel's do come out in the snow?"

"I haven't."

"What'd you think? Do they?"

"I doubt it. Heavens warm."

"That’s a shame. If they did, id get to see my mum again..."

He trailed off, staring up at the grey sky through the hatch on the ceiling as Marinette stared at him in a brand-new light. She was used to Chat Noir being comfortable enough to trust her with his home plights, but somehow, she'd never expected it from Adrien. Then again, she never imagined Adrien having a plight at home...

"If I wasn't worried about making you stick, I'd hug you. You clearly need it," she said.

Adrien tried to laugh but it choked in his throat. "No, no, I... maybe I do..."

"Maybe you just need a day out with your friends," She suggested.

He scoffed. His father would never let him out. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t play along and pretend to plan a day away. "We could go skiing... if you want I mean... in Chamonix?"

Marinette did not want. She didn’t like snow or cold or falling, but there was a lot of that skiing. Even so, she didn’t bother to stop them playing. "I've never been skiing."

He smile at her. "I'll teach you."

"It'll end up in a snow ball fight," she warned.

"Good!" He laughed.

It was a real, genuine, warm laugh that made Marinette smile a little.

"I wouldn't like the cold," she said.

"Then when you got so cold you couldn't feel our fingers and your lips turned blue I could take you to the café and we could have hot chocolate by the crackling fire together. You and me. In a log cabin. Open fire. Hot chocolate..."

Adrien closed his eyes to imagine the little toasted marshmallows floating on top of the cream. Marinette closed her eyes too. She could practically hear the fire crackling in front of them. the warmth of the sun felt like the fire on her face. although that may have been her fever. He turned to her, and saw how she was leaning on her arm, eyes shut, looking exhausted. He had to get up to nudge her gently.

"Mari?"

She opened one eye. "Yeah?"

"Go to sleep Mari. Lie down and sleep properly. You need it," he said softly.

"Can’t argue with that," she muttered.

Exhaustion was heavy on her shoulders as he helped her to her feet and lead her to the sofa to lay her down comfortably. His eye caught the red and black dotty ladybug doll on the shelf and his face lit up. He tucked it under her arm gently, which would have made her horribly embarrassed, if she wasn't too tired to care.

"I like your Ladybug. It's as cute as she is," Adrien smiled.

Marinette frowned slightly, looking confused and tired and surprised. "You think Ladybug is cute?"

"Everyone thinks so. Ladybug is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life," Adrien explained quietly.

Marinette chuckled softly, closing her eyes as she relaxed. "Thanks."

Adrien's soft chuckle in reply made her smile warmer, "Don't worry Marinette, you're still my favourite girl."

She opened her eyes again, "I am?"

"Yeah. You’re my favourite girl, she's my favourite lady," he smiled.

She smiled back, blushing a little behind her red nose, and curled against the sofa again. "Good to know..."

"Sweet dreams Mari," he whispered, resisting the urge to kiss her forehead as he ran his hand through her hair gently. "I'll see you soon."

Marinette muttered something but it was too quiet to properly make out. Adrien left as quietly as he possibly could as Marinette drifted off with ease, into the sweetest dreams she had ever had.

...

Marinette curled her ladybug doll closer to her chest, pulling the blanket with her. The exhaustion weighed her down so quickly that she didn’t even make it up to her bed. Instead she was napping on her sofa, under the blanket Tikki had dragged over for her after Adrien had left. He had left more than an hour ago. It was fortunate she was out of the way, considering that Chat Noir came crashing down from the balcony onto the bed, making the covers bounce. Marinette whined and pulled the covers up over her head.

"Sorry for barging in like this princess-" Chat Noir paused at the bottom of the bed steps and looked around the seemingly empty room. "Princess?"

"What?" She asked, harshly from under the covers. Chat smirked. He crept over to the sofa where she had been sleeping and lifted the cover to peer under. Marinette opened her eyes to glare at him. Chat knelt down and gave her the brightest smile he ever had.

"Hi!" He grinned.

"What do you want?" she asked drily.

Chat peeled the covers back to reveal her face and the lethal glare she was giving him. "A little birdy told me you were sick."

"Did you kill it?" she asked.

"I don’t kill the messenger," he smiled.

"You're killing me," she spat.

"But I did make its friend into soup."

Chat lifted the insulted box of chicken soup he had carried all this way from home, so she could see it. He hadn’t made it himself, obviously, he was never allowed in the kitchen. That's what they had hired staff for, after all. But he asked the chef to make him some chicken soup for a sick friend, and he had happily obliged. The chef appreciated the difference between Gabriel and Adrien. For one, Adrien said please.

Marinette grumbled at him as she pushed herself into sitting with her elbows. "I hope to God that's chicken because if you expect me to eat pigeon again-"

"No, no - again?"

Chat did a double take that won him a glare from Marinette, but not an explanation.

"Don't you judge me!"

"I'm not!"

He threw his hands in the air in surrender, so she wouldn't bite his head of about it. Even so, Marinette continued grumbling under her breath. He missed most of it - her throat made her voice muffled to start with, making it quiet made it harder to hear - but what he actually did hear made him smirk.

"Useless cat, can't even kill a pigeon!"

"I'm allergic! Besides I don’t wanna kill a pigeon," he laughed.

The laughter made her head hurt so she glared at him, revealing the depths of the bags under her eyes as she did. "Just leave the soup and go."

"Wow, you're grumpy when you’re sick," he smirked.

"I’m allowed to be, this is your fault!" Her voice fluctuated as she tried to raise it.

"My fault? How'd you figure that?" He laughed again in surprise.

"You left the window open!" She argued.

"You got sick because I left the window open?" He smirked sarcastically.

"I was fine before you let my room get cold!" she folded her arms across her chest to pull the blankets back over her.

"Then I'm sorry," Chat declared. He sat down on the sofa at the end of her feet, ignoring the dirty looks it won him from the girl who just wanted to be left alone. "To prove it, I'm gonna come by and nurse you back to health every day, until you feel better. Be as grumpy as you like I'm staying till you stop being pawly!"

"I feel perfect, go away," she huffed.

"Alya was right, you're mean when you're sick," chat muttered to himself.

Marinette frowned. "When did you talk to Alya?"

"I overheard her talking to Nino while I was checking up on Chloé. She hasn't caused an akuma in a while, I'm worried," Chat lied.

"Oh God an akuma right now would be awful," Marinette groaned now that she had something new to worry about.

"An akuma is always awful," Chat said.

Marinette sighed heavily and held the box of soup back up at Chat as the steam warmed her nose. "I don’t have a spoon."

Chat blinked in surprise. "Should I run to the kitchen and find one?"

"Get me bread rolls too please?" she asked.

A small smile curled at the corner of his mouth. She was polite even now, while sick and grumpy. Damn she was cute. "Of course, princess. I'll be right back."

Chat smiled softly as he stood up and wandered out towards the door hatch. Marinette watched him dip down out of the hatch and vanish down the ladder by sliding down the bars that made the edges. Marinette sniffed the soup again. She dipped her finger in. It was warm enough, if not hot, but she was sure it'd feel ok going down her throat. Soothing even maybe. Then she licked her finger and retched. Peas. She despised peas.

"This is inedible," she declared, placing it safely on the floor.

"Well don't hurt his feelings about it!" Tikki warned.

"Oh gee I hadn't thought of that!" Marinette rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"No need to bite my head off," Tikki huffed.

Marinette sighed, twisting her ladybug doll to vent her frustrations on that instead. "Sorry Tikki."

Tikki smiled, forgiving her. "Shall I be your hot water bottle?"

Marinette nodded a little, and whispered, "You're the greatest."

Tikki wriggled down against Marinette's chest, between her chin and the top of her rib cage to warm her throat enough that she was able to ease the ache there for long enough to stop her coughing.  
By the time Chat came back Marinette had settled back into her sofa ready to nap. She was even cuter like this. Being sick made her vulnerable which made her aggressive. But now she was asleep, she was back to being the peaceful and innocent Marinette he had known since the start of the best year of his life. The day before they met everything had changed for him. He started school, he became Chat Noir and he met the love of his life. Marinette meant a lot to him. Sick and grumpy or not, he was going to do all he could to look after her.  
Chat glanced out of the window to check on the sky for any signs of snow. Nothing. But a photo of himself did catch his eye. Well not himself as Chat Noir. Himself as Adrien. A photo torn from a magazine and stuck up on the wall with tape. He was up on the other wall too. Beside a huge poster of Jagged Stone. It would probably be the only time he ever appeared on anything with Jagged, he felt a little honoured. Chat had noticed the different pictures going up with each new magazine published. When he questioned her about it she said they were to inspire her about Gabriel's new designs and let them influence her current designs. His mind was so wrapped up in that, that he barely noticed himself singing. Not until Marinette opened her eyes and raised her head enough to see him.

"Are you singing let it snow?" She asked.

He blinked in surprise to see her suddenly awake. He flashed her a smile. "Good morning sleepy head."

"No it’s not," she grumbled.

He wasn't sure if she meant it’s not morning or it’s not a good morning, but he knew the answer would be impatient, so he chose not to bother asking.

"I've been admiring your walls. They're aggressively Agreste. They’re Arestive!" he beamed at the new pun.

Marinette rolled over to face him. "Don't change the subject."

"I wasn't aware we were on a subject."

"Why do you like Snow?"

"Why don’t you?"

"It hurts to talk, answer me."

Their conversations could be like fencing at times. Sharp and battle ready. Other times it could be soft and intimate, but they had so many secrets that they had to keep hidden but wanted so many answers that sometimes they had to be defensive. As close as they wanted to be, they had to defend themselves.   
Even so Chat Noir was willing to oblige. He sat on the end of the sofa, so she had to pull her feet away from him. Carefully he lifted her legs back to rest on his own, so she wouldn’t have to be cramped. It was a little thing, hidden behind the blanket, but Marinette appreciated the thought. She wriggled like a worm, despite him protesting that she needed to stay still, but when her head rested on his thigh where her leg had been, he shut up. The pink of his ears spread down under his mask, and he bit his bottom lip. She snuggled against him, and he tried hard to fight the urge to purr. It rumbled quietly in his throat, which made her smirk.

"Tell me," she said, gently.

His hand landed on her hair with a gentle scrape of his claw against her cheek. There was a little scratch, but she didn't feel it.

"I like snow, because it reminds me of being little," he explained, quietly.

His voice was muffled through his stomach, down to her ear which was far more soothing to Marinette than that chicken soup he'd brought. Tikki snuggled against Marinette too, to make it harder for her to stay awake.

"I used to love seeing the snow when I was young. Everything was hidden under this thick layer of white, sparkling in the light, and it never got dark. Every time it snowed there was always light out, even when it got dark. There’s always light even in the depths of darkness, and snow proves it y'know? And I love how quickly snow can change your mood."

"Does it?" She sighed.

"Don't you remember how groggy you'd be in the morning, all slow and cold, not wanting to wake up, and then seeing the snow outside and being bolt awake?" Chat asked.

"Yeah, but-"

Marinette fell quiet as his hand moved away from her back and started running across her hair softly. The surprise of his delicate touch silenced her, and his claws bumped against her scalp too gently to hurt her in any way. He was so very careful with her as he continued to stroke her hair. Her cheeks turned pink as she felt herself relaxing against him at the pleasant sensations. He moved on when he decided she wouldn't continue.

"I used to run down to the back door in my dressing gown and slippers, with my mother chasing after me with my coat and my scarf. I'd make it all the way to the front door before someone scooped me up and put on my shoes so I could go out and play,"

he explained, smiling to himself.

"Someone?" She repeated. "Your father?"

Chat's hand hesitated and his chest tensed which made her twitch in concern. Chat cleared his throat and went back to running his hand through her hair.

"No. Not usually. My father would already be working, and he'd tell me off for making noise. But snow mutes all the noise. It’s like a white blanket making everything quiet. Laughter echoes, but no one hears unless they’re listening for it... father couldn't be mad if the snow was there to keep me quiet. I can be as loud as I like and he wouldn't know. It’s wonderful..."

Marinette fell quiet for a moment or two. In the quiet she listened to his soft purrs rumbling through his chest. Her throat made her voice course and her head ached at the sound, but she still felt a need to talk for his sake.

"Chat?" she asked.

"Shh," he whispered softly, his hand pausing on her head. "Don’t strain your voice princess. We want you to get better quickly."

"Chat?" She asked, softer.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Do you ever feel like standing on top of the Eiffel Tower and screaming until your lungs give out?" she asked.

There was a short pause as he took a deep breath that gently nudged her head forward before he sighed heavily. "Yeah. All the time princess."

"Why don’t you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "What's the point? That way everyone knows you're in trouble. Besides you ease your pain faster if you laugh it away."

Marinette gasped softly in realisation. "Now I understand the puns!"

"I like to laugh," he shrugged, but she could hear his smile in his voice.

Marinette snuggled closer against him, wriggling one arm free of her blanket to wrap around him gently to tug him as close as possible. This way she could steal his warmth as well as comfort him.

"I like to hug," she muttered.

"I see that," he smiled.

He wrapped his arms back around her in response. Despite his best efforts, his mind went back to when he ran into Sabine in her kitchen earlier. She had teased him about being back so soon, which made him laugh a little and try to charm her, which made Tom laugh and warn him not to steal his wife when he already had his daughter. Chat had denied it stubbornly, but if either of them came peering in through the hatch door now, this would be hard to explain yet alone defend.

"I-" Chat cleared his throat anxiously, trying to shake the thoughts of pleasure from his mind, "I like the snow... it makes me smile... when all else is said and done, isn’t that what matters?"

"Yeah kitty... yeah it is..." she whispered.

Chat wrapped his arm a little tighter to pull her a little closer. Her ladybug doll tumbled onto the floor and neither of them noticed.

"I can't stay much longer. I was only supposed to drop off the soup," he whispered.

"Will you stay till I fall asleep? Please?" She whined softly.

"Of course princess. I'll sing you to sleep if you want," he teased.

"You'll serenade me, will you? How very noble!" She chuckled.

"I would but..." chat wrinkled his nose, "I don't um... I don’t actually know any lullabies."

She frowned and rolled to look up at his face. "What?"

"I was home schooled for most of my life, and they don't really teach lullabies in school at my age!" He explained.

"Well didn't your parents sing to you?" She asked.

"No. I might have had a nanny who did, but if so, it was too long ago and I've forgotten them all," he shrugged.

"That's awful..." she gasped. "remind me to teach you lullabies soon!"

"Yes princess. Good night Princess," he whispered quietly.

"Night kitty," she yawned back.

Chat Noir's fingers twisted through her hair gently, and he realised he didn’t fight this need to kiss her head. He bent down carefully and let his lips brush against her hairline. She was practically asleep already but she giggled softly without opening her mouth. He smiled to himself as his chest warmed with affection. As gently as he could he lifted her head from his lap and rested her on the sofa again peacefully.   
Once they were safely back in Adrien's bedroom, Plagg flitted in front of Adrien's face and grinned smugly.

"What?" Adrien asked.

"You like her," Plagg grinned.

Adrien snorted, "What?"

"Gorilla was right! You _do_ like her! Like, _like_ like her! Don't you?!" Plagg laughed.

"What?! No! I love _Ladybug_!" Adrien argued.

"Sure you do. But you wanna try Miss Bakers Daughter's tasty treats, don't you?!" Plagg laughed.

Adrien groaned, "I beg you to stop talking."

"Oh come on, so you have a crush! It's not so bad," Plagg grinned.

"Drop it Plagg!" Adrien urged.

"Fine, I won't mention it again. Lover boy," Plagg snickered.

" _PLAGG_!"

"Kidding!"

Plagg threw his head back with laughter as Adrien sighed heavily. There was a long pause as Plagg's laughter trailed off. He frowned, suddenly realising that Adrien wasn’t smiling. He didn't even smirk like this was all a joke. He just looked uncomfortable as he scratched at his throat.

"What’s wrong?" Plagg asked.

"Nothing, my throats just itchy. Maybe I've been watching Marinette cough too much," Adrien shrugged.

"Maybe you're coming down with something," Plagg shrugged.

"No, father wouldn't like that," Adrien shook his head.

"He can’t stop you getting sick," Plagg pointed out.

"He'll stop me seeing Marinette!" Adrien argued.

Plagg hummed thoughtfully. They couldn’t have that. "You could try to hide it, but you've seen how bad she is right now. It won’t last forever."

"It doesn’t need to," Adrien insisted. "I just gotta keep going long enough for Marinette to get better and tell me about her stitches in the snow."

"Then you need to work faster. You're gonna get sick kid," Plagg warned.

Adrien wandered over to the window to look up at the cold grey sky speckled with patchy blue here and there. There was one worry in his mind about being sick any time soon.

"If I do, it had better not snow."


	4. Chapter 4

Adrien was feeling pretty groggy as he sat on the chair beside Marinette’s computer. She looked worse than ever. He assumed they were finally reaching the peak of illness. Her mood was making her rattier than ever.

"I thought you’d be back in class by now," he said.

Marinette snorted, her voice worse than it had been, "It’s been two days Adrien."

"I know, but you're fit and strong. I guess I thought you could fight off the sick easily," he shrugged.

"Maybe if people stopped bothering me constantly and just let me sleep-"

"Your mother said it was an infection keeping you in."

Marinette fell silent halfway through her sentence, frowning in confusion. "Did she? When was she here?"

"She - she wasn’t. I went downstairs. I told you that a minute ago," he said, his voice lowering into confusion with hers.

"Oh." She bowed her head a little. "I have to have pills for this infection, and I thought it was penicillin but it’s making me kinda spacey..."

"Spacey?" He repeated.

"Yeah... maybe it was the injection the doctor gave me... I'll have to ask papa what that was..."

She trailed off for a moment or two and he found himself smiling warmly at her. She gave him a baffled look. "What?"

"Nothing. I get it. Spacey," he smirked.

"Well there’s not much to keep my mind on right now," she sighed.

"What about your dolls?" He asked, bending to lift the Ladybug doll from the floor, and gestured to the others sitting on the desk. "I see there's been additions."

"Well there’s nothing else to do when I'm stuck here, bored out of my mind," she shrugged.

Adrien nodded in understanding. He lifted the doll to point at each of the dolls in turn.

"So we've got Rogercop, Evillustrator, Lady Wi-fi, Chat Noir Glaciator, Puppeteer, Rena Rouge, and of course," he looked down at the doll in his hand and smiled at it. "lovely Ladybug herself."

Marinette frowned a little as she watched him brush the string hair away from the felt mask with a little affectionate smile.

"Lovely Ladybug?" She repeated, suspiciously, "what'd you know about Ladybug?"

Adrien looked up in alarm as she snapped him out of his thoughts. His cheeks flushed pink as he remembered he wasn’t in his suit right now. Marinette had no idea who she was talking to. She probably thought he was insane to be so in love with a hero. Especially when everyone in the city felt the exact same way.

"She's a hero," he said, trying to sound blasé about it.

Marinette treated this conversation with the same rapier quality as those with Chat Noir. Quick and sharp. He kept up with ease.

"So's Chat Noir."

"She's my hero."

She scowled, defensive on her partners behalf. "What, Chat Noir isn’t good enough to be your hero?!"

Adrien bit back a laugh, "No, it’s not that-"

She ignored him, her raspy voice getting more and more strained as she argued, "Chat Noir is an amazing hero. He’s kind hearted and loyal and smart as well as funny, and he cares. Ladybugs nothing compared to him!"

Adrien frowned at her, struggling between being flattered that she thought so highly of him, and annoyed she thought so little of Ladybug.

"Ladybug is better than Chat Mari, everyone in Paris knows that," he said.

"I don't!" She huffed.

"You must be special," he shrugged sarcastically.

Her scowl deepened. "Ladybug's one of the cities heroes. She's no more lovely than Chat Noir, ok?"

"I know she's the city's hero-"

"One of."

"But Ladybug is more than that to me. She's..."

He trailed off leaving them in a slightly awkward silence in a slightly awkward argument. Adrien knew she was arguing on his behalf - even though she didn’t know it was _his_ behalf - because he thought she was defending a friend. He didn't know she was insulting Ladybug because she herself _was_ Ladybug, and he was offended on her behalf. They were annoying each other by insulting themselves.   
Tikki and Plagg were more than a little frustrated.

"She's everything," Adrien finished.

Marinette stared at him for a moment or two as the final puzzle pieces fell into place and her eyes slowly widened. " _you've_ got a crush on ladybug!"

Adrien’s eyes widened, and he scrambled for an answer. Marinette couldn't decide if she was flattered or furious that _Ladybug_ could turn Adrien into a stuttering mess like he did to her. She was stopping herself dating Adrien because she wasn't herself! Was that funny? Did she feel like laughing?

"This isn't a crush! Well, no, it - it is s crush actually, but m- MORE than a crush really! She's - she's - she's the love of my life!"

No. It wasn't funny. She didn't want to laugh. No. It wasn't flattering. She wasn't flattered. This was frustrating and ridiculous, and she was furious. He didn’t love her because he loved the idolised hero she pretended to be. None of that was real. He was in love with a fantasy. That made her furious.

"I can’t believe I ever had a crush on such an idiot!" She huffed.

He frowned in confusion. "A crush? What?"

"Yeah. A crush. Someone you like. Like, _like_ like. A _crush_ ," she said, sarcastically.

He blinked in shock, "You had a crush on me?"

"No?! Congratulations you're officially the last one to know. Everyone else saw!" Marinette’s voice was stronger when heavily laced with sarcasm.

Adrien was having trouble taking that in. She was one of his closest friends, and he never imagined she could have a crush on him. Then again, he never imagined any one could. He only had eyes for Ladybug. And it wasn’t like Marinette ever said anything. Now she was mad at him for it!

"Since when?" He asked.

"I don’t know! since you gave me that umbrella I guess," Marinette said.

"Are you kitten me?!" Adrien asked, momentarily forgetting he wasn’t Chat right now. "I thought you just thought I was a friend!"

"I know you did, idiot!" she huffed.

He frowned in offence and began defensively, "Hey-"

"Look around you Adrien and try not to be so damn oblivious. What kind of person covers their walls in photos of one specific friend, unless there’s something more between them?!"

Marinette said.

Adrien gazed around the posters, wondering how he'd never put two and two together properly before. "Seriously?"

"Wow Nino was serious about you being blind. Then again, I guess everyone's blind to something, whether you choose to be or not. People keep secrets. Other people choose to have no idea. They say things like 'no, they couldn't do that, they're too weak' or 'no she couldn't be a hero because Ladybug is way prettier than her!' But if they opened their eyes, and if they let themselves see, maybe they'd notice the bluebell eyes... maybe they'd see behind the mask..."

Marinette trailed off slowly, her mind obviously wandering away from her. Adrien screwed up his mouth and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for Marinette's mind to snap back into the conversation. He had forgotten that she was being spacey right now. It took her a while to bring her mind back with an unrelated thought.

"Chat has really pretty eyes."

Adrien wanted to be flattered that she liked his eyes, but he couldn't. He liked Marinette but he _loved_ Ladybug. He couldn't fight with his friend about his love. It would end in tears, and it would hurt them both. It already was.

"Wow. You're really out of it... maybe I should go," he said.

"Yeah go on. Go back to your oblivious little life, son of my hero, job of my dreams, and ignore the next girl who falls in love with you until she's sick of everything else, so you can torture her instead,"

Marinette snarled.

Now Adrien was starting to get offended, and he tried to defend himself, but Marinette was sick and furious and wouldn't let him get past the first word. Marinette was ready to let him have a year and a half of bottled up frustrations with both barrels. Her voice would be sharp and venomous, and this wouldn’t be pretty.

"You can try Chloe next. I don't really know how long she's been in love with you, but you’ve been friends since childhood, so breaking her apart must be so very easy for you. Or will that make the torture over too quick? How much do you want us to suffer before we realise you don't love us?"

"That’s not fair-"

"What’s not fair is that you could have had any girl in the city, any one of them, and you went and fell in love with a figurehead. A corporate logo. Ladybug isn’t some mystical being, or some perfect prize to prove you can always get the best things, she’s just a _person_. She’s not perfect. Sometimes she’s terrible. Sometimes she causes akumas to go on longer than they need to for personal selfish reasons, because she _is_ selfish. Did you know she's completely aware Chat Noir is in love with her but pretends he isn’t because it’s easier on her to string him along rather than letting him go completely?"

Adrien straightened upright with mild urgency. Adrien's stomach twisted with anger and confusion, doubt and hurt. He was offended by her attitude, and utterly baffled by how she was talking to him. Marinette didn’t care about Chloé, but he did. He knew she didn’t love her. She didn't, right?

"Chloé doesn't love me," Adrien said.

Marinette scoffed. "Chloé can't love you but Ladybug can? You don't even know her Adrien. How could you be in love with her?"

Adrien opened his mouth and then shut it again. His stomach was twisted tighter now. Tight enough to make him feel sick and stop him being able to think. Adrien felt hurt enough that he could have cried. He didn’t want Marinette to see that, because it was her fault. Gabriel always said never let the causes see you cry. His breath shook as he stood up and stared hard at the ground, unable to look her in the eye.

"Now I understand why no one wants to be around you when you're sick. It's more than being snappy because you're grumpy. You’re downright cruel."

"Then leave. And take these stupid posters with you. I don’t want them anymore," she said.

Adrien's nose twitched in annoyance as he moved away from her, his chest burning with anger. The only way to vent he had was to tear the closest poster off of the wall viciously. Each corner and half off the posters chest tore away as he ripped it from the wall. Marinette flinched as the sound of paper tearing sliced through the hard tension of the room. It was that moment she knew she'd gone too far. He slammed the hatch door shut behind him and shook the room because of it.

Immediately Tikki leapt out from under Marinette's pillow, frowning with her hands on her hips. "There was no need for that."

Marinette turned away from her kwami, too riled up to talk, "Leave me alone Tikki."

"You know you're sick but that’s no excuse to act like this," Tikki said, sharply.

Marinette shook her head, "Tikki-"

"You remind me of Chloé when you do."

Marinette stiffened. She closed her eyes and took a moment to curse inwardly. It had been a perfect storm of emotions. Anger, confusion, jealously, illness, frustration, joy, to name a few. A hurricane that was ready to destroy all she and Alya had been working towards. She had gone too far. She had messed everything up. No one else could be blamed for her mistake.

Marinette took a deep breath and turned back to Tikki. "I'll fix it."

"How?" Tikki demanded.

"I'll find a way," Marinette said.

"It'll have to be big," Tikki said.

"I'll find a way."

"You'd better. Ladybug may be a corporate logo to you, but she’s a beacon of goodness to everyone else in the city and right now, you aren't."

Marinette closed her eyes and hung her heard. Tikki was hurt too. Marinette had essentially cast her aside and belittled her because she was jealous Adrien liked Ladybug. Because Adrien liked her. Exhausted, annoyed and hurt, Marinette's shoulders sagged.

"I'll fix it. I promise," she said.

If Tikki had anything else to say she didn’t have time. Alya threw the hatch door open with the same force Adrien had slammed it shut. She stormed over to Marinette, ready to tear into her. Ill or not this was going too far.

"Mari, I just saw Adrien leaving very quickly. He didn’t even say goodbye to tom. What'd you do?" Alya demanded.

Marinette wasn't stupid enough to tell Alya she had upset Adrien by insulting _Ladybug_. She'd sooner insult a lion cub in front of its mother. instead she looked her best friend in the eye and made her the same promise she made her kwami.

"I'll fix it."

Alya wasn’t letting her go that easily. "Tell me."

"I'm sick!" Marinette whined.

"I don’t care. Illness isn’t an excuse," Alya said.

Good old Alya. Tikki was becoming increasingly proud of Marinette's choice for the city's latest hero. Alya was a good one. She was also not about to let her best friend get away with belittling this.

"I... I ruined everything," Marinette shrugged helplessly.

Alya's expression changed. She went from furious to sympathetic like a switch had been flipped. Her best friend was hurt. Alya wasn't going to pile on top of that. She sat on the end of the sofa and looked at her friend with patience in her eyes.

" _We_ can fix this. But first you need to tell me everything," she said. "What happened?"

...

All of the aggressive tension from the room had leaked away after an hour or two. Alya was lingering around trying to think up ways that they could make things up to Adrien. Marinette was staring up at the ceiling, wondering what Ladybug had that made both Adrien and Chat fall in love with her. For some reason it was Chat she was more fixated on. That's probably why she subconsciously tilted her head to see the skylight as the little speckles of white drifted down to settle on the glass. Marinette sat up in surprise.

"Hey! It’s snowing!" She gasped.

Alya glanced up at the sound of happy surprise from her friend. She rose a suspicious eyebrow in response.

"I thought you hated snow," she said.

"I do, but Chat loves it, he's been waiting all year for this, he's gonna be so happy!" Marinette said.

Alya turned completely in her seat to look at Marinette properly. Marinette was gazing up at the ceiling still, watching the snow fall with a look of utter delight on her face. Alya glanced at the remains of the poster that had been torn away still on the wall. Glancing between that and Marinette's utterly shining smile, it wasn't exactly hard to put two and two together. Alya threw her pen across the desk and fell back against the back of the chair with a laugh of realisation.

"Oh my God."

Marinette’s face fell to concern as she looked over at her friend. "What?"

"Poor Adrien!" Alya laughed, shaking her head.

She wasn't sure if she was more annoyed by the hypocrisy or amused by Marinette's utter obliviousness.

"What?!" Marinette asked again.

"You love Chat Noir!" Alya declared.

" _What_?!" Marinette howled.

Alya stood up and turned around properly to walk over to where Marinette was sitting so she could spell it out simply for the poor clueless girl.

"The one and only thing you hate more than Chloe, is being cold. and you hate the snow! You hate it! You wouldn't even have a snowball fight with me! But now you're smiling because it's snowing and you're not running away, not because you like the snow, but because you like that it makes him happy. It reminds you of him. And you _love_ him."

Despite her refusal to believe it, Marinette felt her stomach twisting nervously and her fingers became tingly. Even so Marinette pushed those feelings stubbornly away with a forced laugh.

"You’re ridiculous."

Marinette raised her hand to bat the air in a blasé manor, as if that would move this entire conversation away for a while. It didn’t. Alya wasn’t letting go without a fight. She grabbed the hand Marinette was batting the air with, and immediately drew her friends focus back on her.

With the upmost seriousness, she said, "Marinette, you're in love with Chat."

Marinette scoffed and rolled her eyes, and Alya continued to insist on this anyway. She had to. Marinette wouldn't listen otherwise and they'd end up ribbing around like headless chickens, stuck somewhere between Chat and Adrien with no idea why, getting increasingly frustrated as they went.

Finally Marinette cracked. "Prove it."

Alya folded her arms across her chest. "How did you prove I was in love with Nino?"

"You went out of your way to buy snacks you didn’t like because he did so you'd have a reason to talk to him," Marinette said.

"Because?" Alya asked.

"Because you brought snacks that made him happy."

"And you're smiling at the snow because it makes Chat what?"

"I’m not in love with him! I just want him to be happy, because when he’s happy he has this really stupid grin and sometimes he purrs which is just-"

Alya's eyebrow rose as she watched her friend freeze up. Try as she might, Marinette couldn't find a way of ending that sentence that didn't prove Alya right. It took her a moment or two to move from denial to realisation, and in that time she looked as if she were buffering. Suddenly her arms fell by her sides and she her shoulders sagged in horror.

"Oh God you're right..."

Alya smirked. "Always am."

"Oh and I just chewed out Adrien for being in love with Ladybug!" Marinette groaned, covering her eyes with her hands as she did. "Oh no... oh Alya this is awful! What do I do?! How do I fix this?!"

Marinette moved her fingers away from her eyes for a moment to look at Alya with the best pair of puppy dog eyes she could possibly muster. The desperation in them was withering. Maybe that’s why Alya’s calm shrug was so devastating.

"I have genuinely no idea, but you have to try if you want any chance of me helping you," Alya said.

"I can't survive a crush without you," Marinette gasped.

"Then you'd better start helping me plan your apology, hadn't you?"

Tikki smirked. She liked to see the girls supporting each other, but the fact they knew how and when to crack down and be serious, was the sign of true friendship. Marinette needed Alya. Then again, she needed all the help she could get.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait, i've been SWAMPED

A pure white blanket was draped over the entire city. Morning, noon and night the reflection of the lights on the snow made the world bright. The air was full of laughter and steam from the panting of the children racing around in the white. The population had doubled. Half of the city's citizens were moulded from the ice and snow and wrapped up in clothes to keep them warm against the numbing ice in the air. Fingers and thumbs couldn’t be felt. Bruises were forming from slips and falls. Cars had silly eyes drawn onto their windscreens. Snow had settled, and it wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. While Marinette was uncharacteristically thrilled by this, Adrien was uncharacteristically devastated. Neither, however, were taking the time to appreciate the beautiful of the snowy linen land. They had more pressing matters to deal with.

Marinette had writers block. She was basically back to health now, and Ladybug's outfit was warm enough to run around in even with the snow but running across the rooftops still couldn’t clear her mind. Two days with only Alya and Tikki for company was usually fine, but with both of them demanding she write and apology for Adrien wasn’t helpful. Hence the writer’s block.   
Actions, Marinette decided, always spoke louder than words. It'd be a lot easier to figure out what she wanted to say to Adrien, and how to say it, if she could just talk to him. To gage how he felt about her right now. She wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t want to see her ever again. Well if he didn’t want to see _Marinette_ , there was always someone else she could send...

...

"I can’t breathe properly, how can I go for a run?!" Adrien whined.

He was pacing around the walls of his bedroom, clinging his blanket around his shoulders as the fever in his head made his cheeks flush and the rest of his face drain of colour. Sick or not Adrien despised being trapped away in here.

"Chat Noir's uniform can keep you warm," Plagg advised, helplessly.

"My nose is running faster than Chat ever could."

"Well it'd only get worse outside. Then you wouldn't even feel your nose."

"I _wish_ I couldn't feel my nose, but I _can_ , and it _hurts_!" He grumbled to Plagg.

His kwami was not exactly the most sympathetic of characters, but even Plagg had to admit that Adrien looked like he'd been dragged to hell and back since yesterday. The cold weather had hit, and his nose had gone running. Even Plagg had to feel a little sorry for him. It'd been two days since he last spoke to Marinette. There'd been no form of reaching out from either of them. Hurt and guilt were powerful things, and both were weighing down hard on them.

Adrien sighed as he collapsed back in his sofa. "Maybe I should apologise."

Plagg frowned and tilted his head at him. "What for?"

"For upsetting her! For not realising her feelings and not telling her I liked Ladybug and -"

"You want to apologise to _Marinette_?!" Plagg sounded repulsed at the idea.

"Who else would I apologise to?" Adrien asked.

"Usually you’re talking about Ladybug, I just block out the finer details. Adrien, Marinette is in the wrong here!" Plagg insisted.

Adrien sighed, "I know but..."

Plagg folded his arms, "But what? She was unnecessarily cruel - you said it yourself! Now you're sick and you're feeling guilty, and it's not going to make you feel any better to say sorry when you don’t need to!"

"I know..."

"Then why do you want to apologise?"

"We were getting close... she was defending Chat Noir to me.... she doesn’t know I'm Chat Noir, but she's trying to defend me from her _crush_! If Ladybug was being mean about one of my friends-"

"Like who, Leila? Maybe Santa? What about Chloé? What'd you do if Ladybug was cruel to them?"

Adrien bowed his head painfully at Plagg's sharp tone. There was no escaping his brutally honest logic. No matter how much it hurt.

"I get your point Plagg."

"You told her clearly and calmly that she was wrong, and she was being harsh. Professionally."

"But Marinette’s not a professional anything!" Adrien argued. "No _she_ gets to be a regular kid, and she gets to have _regular_ crushes on her classmates, and have a _regular_ family who love her and welcome everyone in with open arms, even if they storm out without so much as a goodbye-"

"Oh my god, if you're _that_ bothered about not saying goodbye to Tom, send the gorilla to do it!"

Plagg groaned.

He was sick of Adrien's guilt-stricken recollection of walking out without saying goodbye to Tom. He'd heard it enough. Adrien rolled his eyes at the kwami.

"Don't be stupid Plagg, there’s more to it than that!" he said.

"Well what?! You want to say sorry to someone who’s should be sorry to you, and you want to say goodbye to someone you left two days ago, but why?! Why does this matter so much to you?! She's just a girl! Why is she so important?!" Plagg asked.

Adrien hung his head with a heavy sigh and muttered, "I just want my friend back."

Plagg reeled back in surprise, and then eased up slowly. Adrien could be sensitive at times, but his heart was in the right place. He wanted this whole thing to be over because it hurt him. But Plagg had been around long enough to figure out that this wasn’t the way to stop the pain.

"Look kid, I don't have any answers for you. Marinette is a good person most of the time. Everyone told you not to get so close when she was sick. Even Alya. Sometimes you need to know when it’s time to walk away," Plagg said, gently.

Adrien shook his head, furrowing his brow. "It's not time to walk away."

"Then give it time. It'll either heal your wounds, or you'll drift away," Plagg said.

Adrien felt a dull ache in his chest and he sighed again, looking down at his shoes. Softly, he whispered, "I don’t wanna lose her."

"Even if Adrien loses her, you've still got Chat Noir," Plagg said.

Adrien shook his head. "It's not the same."

Plagg floated over to lay a soft paw on Adrien's head. "You’re too good a person Adrien. It'll be the death of you."

For a moment or two, they stayed like that. Frozen in time. Plagg's head resting against Adrien's, paws on his temples. Adrien bathed in the warmth of one of his kwamis rare but cherished moments of affection. It was a tiny touch that reminded Adrien, no matter what happens, no matter who he gains or losses, no matter who he becomes, Plagg would always be there. Adrien would always be grateful for Plagg.   
The moment was broken by snow balls bursting against his bedroom window. There was thudding against the glass as they exploded. Groaning at the thundering echo it caused in his mind, he peeled himself from his sofa, dragging his blanket with him. His blanket wrapped around him like a cloak as he wandered to the window. Way down below, his red and black spotty partner stood out from the white snow blanket like a sore thumb. She beamed up at him, snowball in hand, and waved. Adrien didn't notice the absolute terror that lit her eyes. He was too shocked by her presence to notice how anxious she seemed.

He opened his window and leaned out into the frost-bitten air. Plagg rolled his eyes. Adrien was never going to get better if he kept climbing out of windows like this.

"Ladybug? W-w-what are you doing here?" He called.

Ladybug gulped. On the way over here she was trying to work out what to say. She'd formed most of a speech in her head, ready to apologise for everything and explain how she knew what she had done was wrong. Now though she was looking up at him from the snow and the snow ball in her hand was melting as she heated up anxiously. His huge green eyes made the words dying in her throat before she could even form them in her mouth. He thought that maybe he just couldn't hear her, so he called again to tell her to speak up. Ladybug choked on her words again, so she decided it would be easier if she could get up to the window. The snowball fell from her hand, and her yo-yo quickly replaced it.

"Marinette made me come." Ladybug blurted the words out like they were trying to escape.

Adrien’s face twisted, making her heart beat faster anxiously, until he finally repeated, "Marinette?"

Ladybug gulped but tried to keep her posture. "Be a gentleman and invite a lady in?"

"Um, s-sure. You're always welcome here my lady-BUG! M-my err, my Lady _bug_. Not m-my - I mean you're everyone’s- um - Ladybug..."

Plagg face palmed as Ladybug moved inside, blushing scarlet as Adrien turned crimson at the window. He ran a hand through his hair and cursed whatever idiot had given him the ability to speak, because clearly, they’d been stingy with it. Ladybug cleared her throat, but her voice was tight. I didn’t matter anyway. Adrien wasn’t listening. His mind was almost entirely focused on Marinette. Marinette who said Ladybug wouldn’t love him, Marinette who said he was a fool for trying, Marinette who he was supposed to be so angry at right now, she was the one who sent Ladybug here. why?

"It's still a lovely room. I don’t know if I told you that last time I saw you, there was an akuma, you were in danger, I was so incredibly worried, I might have forgotten to-"

"Marinette sent you?"

Ladybug winced at the forcefulness with which he demanded the answer. He was still mad at her. that was understandable, and forgivable given what she’d said, but that was why she was here as Ladybug and not Marinette. She thought he’d go easier on Ladybug…

"Yes. Is that a problem?" she asked.

"Marinette doesn’t seem to be your biggest fan," he said.

She shrugged. "She likes Chat. He deserves the support."

"He does?” Adrien asked uncertainly. He raised an eyebrow and asked, trying not to sound desperately hopeful, “What do you really think about him?"

That was a loaded question. One that Ladybug did not want to think about right now too. "I'm not here to talk about Chat."

"Right...” he tried not to look disappointed. “why are you here?"

Ladybug took a deep breath and closed her eyes to say everything she'd been working on on the way over here. "Marinette says she's really sorry for everything she said. It was completely out of line. Even being grumpy and sick isn't enough of an excuse. She didn't mean it Adrien. You mean the world to her, and she wants you to be happy."

Adrien's mouth fell agape for a moment and his heart swelled to ache heavily in his chest. Adrien was supposed to be mad at her, but he had had no one for so long that casting Marinette aside just because of one argument seemed just as cruel as what she had said. He liked Marinette. He really, really liked her. Right now, he missed her desperately. He bowed his head and sighed.

"Marinette always did put my happiness before her own..."

Ladybug forward in confusion. "She did?"

"Yeah..." Adrien's hand moved to the blue scarf coiled on the floor like a snake. "see this scarf? I thought my father gave it to me for my birthday. He didn't. Marinette made it, and he stole the credit. She never told me. Alya told me not to ask why, because she was just happy I liked it, and happy I was happy. Although I was happy because I thought my father had remembered that I actually exist...."

Ladybug nodded, "You wore it at Christmas, I remember."

"I remember you arguing with Santa," Adrien said.

Plagg raised his head from his hand curiously. Adrien sounded mildly bitter about it. Maybe he had been listening to Plagg earlier. Maybe he had taken it on board. Or maybe the reminder was helping himself decide if she was as perfect as he had so adamantly believed. Ladybug bowed her head low.

"That was not my finest hour..."

she said.

"Or with Lila?"

"That wasn't either."

"Or Chloé."

"Chloé didn’t deserve to be dragged into our - your argument. Marinette was wrong to do that."

"I'm not talking about Marinette. I'm talking about you."

She blinked in surprise, looking up as she did, "M-me?"

"I've been thinking about how much I've seen of you... I hate small spaces. You didn’t ask me if I was ok in one before you locked me in... You walked into my shower..."

She bowed her head again, her shoulders slumped low. "I'm sorry about that."

"I'm just another citizen to you... Marinette was right about that..." Adrien muttered.

Ladybug shook her head and reached out to touch him, but pulled her hand back instead, "You're more than just a citizen Adrien."

Adrien straightened up in hopeful surprise, "I am?"

"You're my favourite citizen," Ladybug insisted. Then after a brief pause for thought, she added, "Apart from Alya.

Adrien’s shoulders sagged, "Oh."

Ladybug frowned, "Being second best isn't always so bad, is it?"

"I've always been second best. I'm second to my father's business, I'm second to my mother’s freedom, I'm..." Chat was second to Ladybug. He knew that. But he couldn’t say it to her. "Tired of being second."

"What are you saying Adrien?" Ladybug asked softly.

"Marinette was right that you'll never love me. It’s not your fault any more than it is mine. We don't _know_ each other. Maybe it’s time to give up on that dream," Adrien shrugged slightly.

"I'm..." Ladybug gulped, feeling far more uncomfortable than she expected to, "I'm sorry."

Adrien gave a soft chuckle, "Don’t be. I loved you buga- Ladybug. I loved the _idea_ of you anyway. The corporate logo... the dream... not the person."

"But I am a person Adrien. I'm far more than just a logo," Ladybug said, defensively.

She couldn’t help the pang of guilt at the hypocrisy of her words. he reached out and cupped her hand gently.

"I know. I know more than you'd think. I'd like to get to know the real you, but I think I need to move on with my love..."

Ladybug's mouth twitched. She wasn’t sure if she was hurt or anxious or not, but she felt sick. Maybe it was nerve. For some reason it was worse when she looked him in the eye, so she kept looking away.

"I understand. I hope you end up happy," she said, softly.

Adrien's hand slipped away from hers as his mind returned to Marinette. "I will be. just as soon as I get my friend back."

"You're not mad at me- her?" Ladybug asked in surprise again.

"I was," Adrien nodded, "More than any other time I've ever been mad. But she was right. Cruel, but honest."

Ladybug opened her mouth to argue that she wasn't right and it wasn’t true, but how would Ladybug know what Marinette had said? And how would it look to him that Ladybug was saying Marinette was wrong without knowing what she said? Or - worse still - what if he thought she did know, and that Ladybug might actually have feelings for him? Ladybug came to the conclusion that she wouldn't say a word about it.

"If she came to see you, would you be mad?" she asked instead.

Adrien sighed and shook his head, "I'm not supposed to see anyone, I'm sick."

"Marinette’s already been sick, it won’t affect her," Ladybug said.

"Nathalie won't see it like that... but if she tried that would be enough I guess..." Adrien said uncertainly.

Ladybug bit back her grin. It was odd to her that it didn’t hurt to know hear him say he didn’t love her. It didn’t hurt that he didn’t love her, it hurt that he missed his friend so badly. She had to apologise. She just had to. At least now she knew he wouldn’t slam the door in her face. The challenge was to get the door open to start with. But she had a plan for that. One that a cool cat had given her.

Ladybug stepped forward and kissed Adrien's cheek gently, grateful that he was such a great friend, and said softly, "I hope you end up happy Adrien."

Adrien turned pink and looked away, mumbling, "Thank you Ladybug."

He didn’t watch her leave. He was too caught up in the fog of his thoughts. Ladybug had kissed him. Kissed his cheek. But his heart wasn't racing. He didn’t feel faint. It didn’t feel like magic. It dawned on him then why Plagg had been so easily able to fluster him about Marinette and change his views on Ladybug.

He was no longer in love with her.

...

"Want me to come with you and hide in the bushes? He won’t see me, I'm like a ninja!" Alya grinned.

Marinette didn’t look up from the box of homemade chicken soup she was anxiously fiddling with. "No, this is something I have to do alone. I can't let you clean up all my messes for me."

Alya glanced up at the foreboding mansion towering over them. How a cheerful boy like Adrien could grow up in a place that reminded her of Dracula's hospital she had no idea, but if you thought Alya was letting Marinette go in without back up nearby, you were dead wrong.

"Ok girl. Good luck. Call me if you need me," she said.

Alya grip on Marinette’s shoulder momentarily tightened protectively. Marinette patted Alya's hand gently and smiled. She knew her friend was going to be lingering outside just waiting for the call.

"You know I will," Marinette said.

Alya slung an arm around Marinette quickly to give her a half-hearted supportive hug before she wandered across the street towards an alley nearby. Marinette took a deep shaky breath.

"Don't worry girl, you got this!" Tikki chimed in from inside Marinette's jacket.

Marinette nodded. She gripped the box of soup a little tighter and rang the doorbell.

...

Adrien opened one weary eye as he heard bickering outside. The snow was supposed to mute that sort of thing. Except... except that wasn’t outside. That was downstairs. Someone was arguing with Nathalie in that stubborn but polite way he only knew three people could use. Nathalie, Ladybug, and-

"Marinette?"

Plagg opened one eye and raised his head as Adrien stirred. He watched the boy sit up in his bed, looking groggy and confused, and he rolled his eyes.

"Adrien sleep will help," Plagg said.

"I hear Marinette," Adrien mumbled.

"You do huh? I didn't think you were that sick," Plagg said.

"No, she's here Plagg, I hear her!" Adrien insisted.

"You're delusional," Plagg said.

"I - I'm not!" Adrien huffed hotly. "I'll prove it!"

Plagg suddenly found himself engulfed in a sweat soaked blanket of his fever ridden charge as he bundled himself up tight and headed towards the door. From the outside Adrien looked like a grumpy ghost stomping down the hall. Plagg hid behind the damp cloth to make sure he wasn’t seen. He was less than pleased about it. when they came to a stop at the balcony looking down over the steps and to the front door, Adrien grinned.

"Told you so."

Plagg grumbled something about Adrien being lucky he was sick because he wasn’t about to hurt a sick person. Adrien didn't hear him. His attention was now fully on the stubborn girl on his doorstep who was undoubtedly Marinette.

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to see him. He's resting," Natalie said monotone.

Marinette matched Natalie's stance. Arms folded to the best of her abilities, head high, although that was just to look her in the eye, and she was holding a... box?

"I understand that, but after what happened with the scarf I asked you to give him, you can understand why I'd like to give him this myself," Marinette said, just as firmly as Natalie.

Natalie's voice was icier now. "I assure you I have no idea what you're implying-"

"She's talking about the scarf Marinette spent weeks making that you stole in and took the name tag off so I'd think it was from father," Adrien said loud enough that his voice echoed across the room.

"Adrien?!" Marinette gasped.

Natalie was unfazed, as if she had expected him to interrupt, "Please return to your room, you're in no condition for company."

Adrien ignored her. "Come in Marinette. We need to talk."

Natalie's face changed to give a rare example of surprise, "Adrien I-"

"Wipe your feet first mind. Wouldn't want father to think I had guests," Adrien said, pointedly.

Marinette wiped her feet on the mat and hurried upstairs to where Adrien was waiting. She couldn't quite hide the grin that lit her face as she glanced back at Natalie trying to regain her composure.

"That was kinda awesome. Thanks," Marinette said quietly as they headed to his room.

"No, thank you," Adrien said.

"For what?" Marinette asked.

"I dunno. For coming to see me? For the scarf? For the soup?" Adrien glanced down at the box in her hands.

"Oh, you’re welcome. It's just like the one a friend gave me when I was sick. Without the peas though. I don't know if you like peas or not, but I don’t, so I thought it best not to risk it," she smiled sheepishly, holding it out.

"Thanks for the thought," he said.

He shut the door behind him. Safely hidden in his bedroom she could finally do what she’d come here to do. First though, she took a deep breath.

"Can I start by saying I'm sorry I made you sick so you can’t go out and play in the snow?"

"There'll be more snow," he shrugged.

She nodded. "When I was three I wanted to play in the snow and build a snowman, but my friends wanted to have a snowball fight instead and kept hitting the head off of my snowman until I joined in. But when I joined it someone hit me with a super gravelly snowball and it got in my eye. I staggered backwards, unable to see the sledges heading my way. The full force of one sent me straight into the concrete and I was rushed to hospital with a huge head wound, terrified I was going to go blind all because I wanted to build a snowman."

This was hard for Adrien to wrap his head around, and Plagg was wriggling down his leg to get out of the blanket, so he just muttered, "Um, ok..."

"I'm not telling you this because I want you to feel sorry for me. I'm telling you because I haven’t told anyone about it since it happened, but I was _terrified_. Snow makes me remember that fear far more than anything else does and it makes me feel awful."

"Why tell me?" He asked, suddenly leaping back into focus.

"It wasn’t my place to tell you what Chloé felt, so I wanted to tell you something you could tell Chloé so she has new ways of torture me if you choose to let her know," Marinette winced guiltily.

"Marinette-"

"I'm sorry."

"Mari-"

"Please, Adrien, let me finish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was grumpy, I'm sorry I told you about Chloé, I'm sorry I was cruel, I'm sorry I told you I didn't want the posters anymore, I'm sorry I said Ladybug was nothing compared to Chat, and I'm sorry... I'm sorry that I said you were stupid to love her. You're a good, kind, funny, handsome young man. You're smart and you're loyal, and she would be lucky to have a boy like you love her."

Adrien smiled softly to himself, "Thank you."

"I'm especially sorry that I said being in love with a hero was stupid. It's just hard, because both of my crushes are so hopelessly in love with Ladybug and not me, and I don’t understand why," Marinette said.

"What? You have more than one crush?" He teased.

She nodded slightly, "That's why I'm so sorry I said being in love with a hero was stupid. It was hypocritical of me."

"Hypocritical because you too love Ladybug?" He teased.

She didn’t seem to pick up on the teasing. "Um, no. Because I think I um, love, um Chat Noir...."

Adrien became a statue. It struck him like a lightning bolt that she - his princess - she was in love with him. His heart missed a beat and his voice dried up.

Plagg raised an eyebrow and answered for Adrien. "Fascinating."

Marinette began running her fingers through her bunches anxiously. "It’s just that he's handsome and charming and loyal and funny... maybe not funny, but he tries! He’s really sweet really. Kind hearted... smart... talented. Really talented. no one appreciates how talented he is! He speaks mandarin, and he dances so beautifully, and he can fence, and play piano, and do it all while joking! And..."

Adrien was absolutely alight now, eyes shining, chest blooming, trying hard not to beam with the delight that lit his heart. "And?"

Marinette gave a love-struck smile that she just couldn’t stop from filling her face, "And he _purrs_. It’s all soft and rumblings and oh it's just the cutest thing!" She paused when she caught his eye, and blushed, letting go of her hair so it masked her face. "I'm sorry, I'm rambling."

"I don’t mind," he smiled.

"I know, but..." she took another deep breath. "Look, there’s about a million things I want to say I'm sorry for, and explain why I said it, and how I was going to make it up to you, but I have no idea how to tell you any of it... but I'm... you're really important to me Adrien. Apart from Chat, I've never been so utterly in love with anyone like I loved you. I couldn’t even tell you because I was so worried you'd realise how much better than me you are," Marinette sighed.

Adrien frowned. "Better than you?! I'm not!"

"You’re the son of my hero," Marinette said, pointedly, "You’re in magazines. On posters! You're everything I want to be, and everything I want in a partner. Plus you’re funny and thoughtfully enough to keep me company when I'm sick and grumpy. You're better than me and I'm OK with that."

Deadly seriously, Adrien repeated, "I'm not better than you."

"I understand if you think we should stay away from each other for a while, but I decided you deserve complete honesty, so that's what I'm giving you from now on. Complete honestly. Is that OK?" She asked uncertainly.

Adrien reached out to cup her hand gently, "You're one of my closest friends. You mean more to me than you'll ever know. Of course we're ok."

Marinette tried not to frown as she looked down at his hands in confusion. Usually any little touch was like a spark of energy that flooded through her and made her go crazy for the rest of the day. Utter bliss. But this was nothing. Curiously she laid her hand on top of his and squeezed gently.

"Thank you," she said softly.

It wasn’t much longer after that, that Natalie appeared to usher Marinette out of the house and into the front garden to leave. She slammed the door shut behind her. Marinette dusted herself off and huffed at the door. Suddenly the deep green bush to the left of the doorstep erupted in an exploding mess of twigs and leaves.

"What happened?!" Alya demanded.

"ARGH!" Marinette yelled, falling backwards so she tripped over her feet and was sent crashing to the floor.

"Stop screaming, it’s just me!" Alya insisted, stepping free of the bushes as she dusted the leaves off of her shoulder.

Marinette looked up in offence to see Alya's eyes manically shining with a lust for information. Alya was so focused on her need for gossip that she didn’t even notice the thorny twigs tangled in her hair. Marinette scowled.

_"ALYA WHAT THE HELL?!"_

High above them, watching Alya pull Marinette to her feet from his bedroom window, Adrien smiled affectionately.

"They're funny... She thinks I'm funny..." he whispered.

Plagg appeared on his shoulder with a smirk. "You _do_ like her, don’t you?"

Adrien snorted but suddenly paused. His face fell as he looked back down at the girl that made his heart beat harder than he knew it could. She was so beautiful as she and Alya laughed, walking away arm in arm. And he didn't love Ladybug anymore...

"Crap."


	6. Chapter 6

For a while it looked like the snow was going to melt away before Adrien was well again. Fortunately, a little white flurry had started falling his way to school, and now it was snowing properly.

Adrien was practically vibrating with excitement as he beamed at Nino and Alya.

"We should build a snow man!" he declared.

"Mari and I already built a snow cat," Alya said.

She expected Adrien to at least look disappointed, but he didn’t. If anything, he just looked more excited. Alya looked less confused about it than Nino did, but she didn't look pleased. Probably because she had to endure the same kind of pining Marinette had for Adrien - an arguably easy target given that he was in their class, and her boyfriend’s best friend so they she could arrange for all of them to go out often - but for Chat Noir, the dashing, illusive and mysterious hero. The one that had a secret identity, which would make dating him that much harder.  
Alya wasn't paid enough for this.  
Well she wasn’t actually paid at all if you didn’t count friendship, which she did, but sometimes even that was stretching it a bit. Marinette was late to class. Again. I mean she had just foiled a mugging as Ladybug, but no one knew that, so there was no excuse. She had to fall back on the same reliable reason everyone else with using.

"Snow's a nightmare!"

"You use it as an excuse far too often to hate it as much as you claim," Alya smirked.

"I don't hate it as much anymore," Marinette admitted. "Knowing that somewhere out there Chat Noir is happily building a snow cat and creating piles of snowballs to use as ammo to surprise attack Ladybug is enough."

Adrien smiled. He couldn’t stop himself. He tried to hide it, but Nino had already noticed.

"Probably purring as he does," Alya smirked.

"Good, it’s a cute sound," Marinette whined but her smile gave away her feelings.

Alya laughed brightly, "You are smitten for that kitten girl!"

"I know! I can’t help it! He's too dreamy," Marinette laughed too.

Unable to resist, Adrien leaned against her desk and pawed at the paper on her desk just the way Chat pawed at her homework to get her to take a break. She looked up in surprise, but didn’t put two an two together.

"Hi Marinette!"

"Oh, Adrien! H-hi, I was just talking about Chat Noir-"

"I know, I heard. You think he's dreamy, huh?"

"Isn’t he? I mean, you're dreamy too, of course, but Chat Noir is just..."

Alya elbowed her playfully, "Girl get a hold of yourself! You're drooling again!"

Marinette’s cheeks flushed, and Adrien’s heart fluttered. Marinette was adorable. He had no idea how he’d never managed to see it before. She was adorable, and in love with him, and he was so lucky that someone so wonderful would even give him the time of day.

“talking of snowball fights,” Nino muttered.

He nodded subtly to where Alix was cautiously sneaking into the classroom, glancing around like she was searching for something. It could have been a teacher to stop her, or it could have been the person she was after, but there was a white ball in her gloved hand that made Nino feel uneasy. The chances she was after one of them were too low to be worth fearing, but if she was after Kim then they were guaranteed to start an all-out snow ball fight, and they were definitely going to be caught in the crossfire.  
Alix’s eyes lit up when she spotted Kim’s scarlet hoodie leaning over Nathanael’s seat right at the back of the room. She crept forward, careful to avoid the squeaky floorboards. They watched her sneak past quietly. She paused beside Ivan to reel her arm back.

“Hey Kim!”

The red figure turned at the call just in time to get a snowball exploding directly on his chest.

“HEY!” Nathanael whined.

Alix’s grin fell into a baffled frown as she realised she’d got the wrong boy.

“where’s Kim?”

Right on cue a snowball flew across the room to smash into her shoulder and burst against her, causing snow to splatter everywhere, including down Chloe’s neck. Chloe leapt to her feet with a scream.

“YOU _IDIOT_!”

“S-sorry Chloe!” Kim stammered, but his grin didn’t make it seem genuine.

“You’re _so_ dead Lê Chiến!” Chloe snarled.

Alix howled with laughter as Chloe stormed over to the window, threw it open, scooped up some snow and threw it right at Kim. It missed him and hit Ivan. Mylene squealed as she ducked out of the way. The snow hit his stomach and he grumbled to himself. Chloe gasped. The rest of the class turned to see what he would do. slowly, Ivan rose to his feet.  
Twenty minutes later the entire class had spilled out onto the streets, giggling six-year olds and dusted with snow. With their breath bellowing out like steam, Alya and Marinette chased Nino around pretending to be dragons. Laughing as he pretended to scream, Nino pretended to be a damsel in desperate need to a knight to stand up to these ferocious beasts. Adrien was there in seconds to be Nino’s knight in shining armour.  
While Adrien pretended to battle with Marinette and Alya, Nino snuck over to the tree they were standing over. Adrien “slayed” Alya, and Marinette had to catch her in her arms as Alya tried to perform a dramatic death scene, complete with face stroking. Marinette had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

Coughing to give more emphasis on the weak voice she was putting on, Alya declared, “Tell my wife I love her…”

Then she choked again a little, and looked straight up towards the tree tops, somehow managing to keep her eyes open despite the constant flutter of snowflakes landing on them. Marinette pretended to be choked up as she cradled Alya closer to her.

"I'll avenge you!" Marinette swore, dramatically.

Suddenly Alya screamed. Marinette and Adrien reeled back in surprise, but not fast enough. Nino had yanked one of the snow-heavy branches hanging over them and let it knock the others to tumble the snow down on top of the others. Marinette and Adrien cried out as the snow hit them. Nino howled with laughter, louder than Alix had earlier in the day. Adrien and Alya turned their attention to Nino. Marinette took the momentary distraction to check up on Tikki.

“You ok girl?” Marinette whispered.

Tikki peered out from the bag to look around. Marinette had knitted her a little black and red hat and scarf, which had enough space for her antenna to peep out of, to keep her warm. Tikki took a moment to breath in the cold air. around them the white blanket continued twinkling, despite the children trampling through it. Tikki giggled brightly.

“It’s very pretty isn’t it?” she smiled.

Marinette smiled and scratched under the kwami’s chin affectionately, “so are you.”

"Tag!"

The yell made Tikki dive back into the safety of her bag as Adrien ran over to push Marinette by the arm. He ran off, sending up a snow storm and crackling with laughter. Marinette had to take a moment to laugh at how childish her friend was before she rushed after Adrien. The two of them went racing across the road and towards the park, dragging Nino and Alya into playing too. They were only playing for about ten minutes before Marinette hand managed to tackle Adrien. clinging onto him meant that when he slipped on a sudden patch of ice, both of them went crashing down into the snow beneath them. Adrien groaned as Marinette giggled. A competitive spark in her eyes made her crawl over from where she was to climb on top of Adrien and pin him down.  
Adrien stopped breathing as Marinette sat on his stomach, pinning his arms down by the wrists, into the cold on the snow. Her face was inches away from his own now. he could see the fire in them. in her cocky smirk. His heart beat faster. If his cheeks hadn’t already been flushed from the cold and the rushing around, he would have blushed hard. What made matters worse was when her voice dropped down to a quiet smirk so only he could hear her.

“got you.”

The snow underneath Adrien melted rapidly as he choked to search for an answer.

“I-I-I-I’m c-cold…”

Marinette tilted her head, slightly confused by highly amused. She smiled at him. “So I see Rudolph.”

“I-I-I wanna go to the w-warmth,” he stammered again.

An evil glint sparked in her eye. "I'll warm you up!"

Adrien practically screeched as Marinette set about tickling him. suddenly he exploded into a fit of giggles as she found his ticklish spots, and her eyes lit up as his smile shone like sunshine.

She ran her gloved finger tips across his soft belly and the groove of his collar bone, careful not to let his shirt flap up too high and expose his belly. He wriggled frantically, screaming with laughter trying to escape. Marinette sat on his legs, squeezing with her thighs to keep him from getting away. It only made things worse. he was helplessly pinned to the ground while she tickled her relentlessly, her own grin growing more and more delighted. He was half frantic with laughter, and half desperate to get away from the way she was pressed against him. she didn’t love him anymore, she didn’t love this side of him anyway, and she had no concept of personal space. he couldn’t blame her. less than a month ago they’d been in the exact same situation, and he hadn’t let her go then either. He blushed to remember.

"Ok, ok YOU WIN! You win just stop- stop, please stop!" he begged desperately.

Marinette laughed as she leaned back, her hands falling onto his stomach as she yanked his shirt back down to stop him getting cold. his arms fell flat against the ground as she stopped, and he tried to push her back. she sat back on her legs for a moment to tease him a little.

"Warm now handsome?"

He shuffled away from her. he couldn’t even look her in the eye right now. he was burning with embarrassment, and he was desperate to kiss her, but he couldn’t. she wouldn’t want him to. This was torture. Blissful torture.

“Where’s Nino?” he muttered.

Marinette rolled back, entirely off of him now, and glanced around. Not far away, Alya and Nino were pushing a large ball of snow across the ground, towards a slightly bigger ball of snow, working together to roll it. once they got to the first ball of snow, they worked together to lift the second on top of it. and then started packing in extra snow like cement, so it wouldn’t fall.

“Add triangle twigs and a stick for a tail and you can make that a snow cat,” Marinette said thoughtfully.

“you really like Chat Noir, huh?”

“I can’t help him. I love him,” Marinette sighed dreamily.

Adrien’s ears turned as red as the rest of his face, more blissful now that embarrassed. Marinette pressed a hand against his shoulder to use him to help her stand. She dusted herself down and held out a hand to him.

“D’you wanna help them build a snow man?” Marinette asked.

“I’ll catch you up,” Adrien smiled.

Marinette smiled back and nodded before hurrying over to where Nino and Alya were patting down their snowman. Adrien drew his knees up to his chest as he watched her go. his heart felt like a bungee jumper around her. she was far more thrilling than she’d ever know.

"Did you hear her Plagg?” Adrien asked, smiling, “She loves me. She really really loves me! Not like I thought Ladybug did either, she actually loves me!"

Plagg had been through this with multiple other Chat Noirs, and he wasn’t exactly keen to go through it again with this one.

"No, she loves _Chat Noir_. You're Adrien," Plagg said.

"I'm _both_ , and she said she loved Adrien once, she can love me again," Adrien shrugged.

"How will you manage that? Make her stop loving Chat and hope really hard she falls back into loving you instead?" Plagg asked drily.

Adrien frowned. "You don’t think she will?"

"One of these days Alya will decide enough is enough. She won't let Marinette jump from crush to crush when it always ends in pain, because real friends don’t do that," Plagg warned.

Adrien looked back over to where Alya and Marinette were laughing at Nino. Nino had found two twigs and was holding them out from his shoulders, as if they were his real arms, and was currently trying to adjust his glasses with them, without poking himself in the eye. Marinette and Alya were clinging onto one another as they laughed. Adrien, who usually would have smiled and laughed along, delighted by his friends having fun, felt his chest sink.

"But she loves me Plagg..." he whispered.

"Are you going to tell her that?" Plagg asked.

"I..."

"How are you going to feel when Marinette is upset in class, and you go to comfort her as Adrien, but you can’t help her like Chat? You can’t kiss her, you can’t even touch her like Chat?"

“But I love her Plagg…”

“think about it Adrien. you can’t kiss her as Adrien. you can’t touch her as Adrien. when you see her sad you can’t comfort her. when you fight an akuma you’ll be constantly worrying about her. she’ll already by constantly worrying about you. when you listen to her gush about how much she loves you, you can’t return the affection. it’ll hurt you more than it doesn’t.”

“but those moments when you’re together, few and fleeting as they may be, are utter bliss. You will always have to keep secrets, so will he, but you can find ways around them. be honest about everything else and it will hurt less. You can comfort him when he’s sad, and you’ll always know he’s safe in akuma attacks. Plus, you’re in love. Love always finds a way to work itself out,” Tikki insisted.

They were overlooking the city from the warmth of Marinette’s bedroom now, and without Adrien or Chat Noir around to distract her, Marinette was full of doubts.

Marinette ran her fingers through her bunches anxiously, “It didn’t for Romeo and Juliet…”

Tikki landed on Marinette’s shoulder to nuzzle against her cheek affectionately. “You’re not Romeo and Juliet. You’re Ladybug and Chat Noir. That’ll work out for the best if you work on it.”

Marinette went back to anxiously pacing back and forth across her room, her mind full of questions and doubts and nerves that made her feel sick to her stomach. Tikki had to jump off of her shoulder, but now she was floating across the room by her side to keep up with her and try to find a way to ease her anxiety.

Marinette ranted, “but what happens when that’s not enough? What happens when he’s searching for me after an akuma attack and can’t find me? What happens if I get hurt as Ladybug and have to transform back into me and he realises I’ve been lying to him for all this time?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Adrien shrugged. “it’ll work out Plagg. It had to, because-”

Marinette whined softly. “I love him so much that-”

“it’s worth the risk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might add another chapter in the future but i just dont have time to work on anything atm so i'm gonna stop it here instead, sorry if its a disappointing end


End file.
